– Greek workers launched a 48-hour general strike today to protest government austerity measures as 20,000 demonstrators headed to Parliament and another 7,000 marched in the country’s second-biggest city. Some 5,000 police guarded Athens, and while the initial protests were peaceful, things are heating up. Young people threw rocks near Greece’s finance ministry, prompting tear gas from police; in central Athens youths burned garbage bins. Strikers range from actors to casino workers to doctors, the AP reports. With lawmakers considering a $40 billion austerity program, including new taxes on minimum-wage earners, “the government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war,” said a protester. Meanwhile, the debate continues in Parliament as European officials push for the plan. "To those who speculate about other options,” noted one, “let me say this clearly: There is no Plan B to avoid default," the New York Times reports. But protesters argue the country’s debts aren’t theirs to cover. “We don't owe any money, it's the others who stole it,” said one.

Expand this summary.

ATHENS — Parliament appeared close to approving and carrying out a set of unpopular austerity measures after a day of intense political maneuvering on Tuesday that seemed to bring wavering members of the ruling Socialist Party into line.

 While the lawmakers debated, riot police clashed with protesters outside the Parliament building. Parliament must pass the measures — which include wage cuts, tax increases and privatizations in a recession-starved country — before Greece’s foreign lenders unlock the next installment of aid that the country needs to avoid default.

 Prime Minister George A. Papandreou has a five-vote parliamentary majority as he tries to push through the austerity plan, which strikes at the heart of his Socialist Party base. The center-right New Democracy opposition party has struck a populist tone and opposes the measures, saying they offer too much austerity and not enough stimulus.

 In the tense countdown ahead of the vote to approve the austerity package, which is scheduled for Wednesday, at least one member of Parliament from the Socialist Party who had opposed the bill changed his mind.

 The lawmaker, Thomas Robopoulos, told state television on Tuesday that he would support the measures, “putting the national interest above everything else.” Earlier, Mr. Robopoulos had said he would decide “at the very last moment, after I have listened to all the speakers,” referring to the debate in Parliament.

 “This is a crucial moment; if the memorandum does not pass we shall go bankrupt,” Mr. Robopoulos added.

 He spoke after talks with the new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, a longtime Socialist who is regarded as being able to rally the party behind the measures, however unpopular.

 The nation’s unions complicated matters on Tuesday when they began a 48-hour general strike — the first time they had walked out for more than 24 hours since democracy was restored to Greece in 1974 after a seven-year military dictatorship.

 The protests in Syntagma Square in front of Parliament began peacefully but turned violent as groups of youths on the fringes began throwing rocks, firebombs and firecrackers.

 The European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have said they will release $17 billion that Greece needs to pay its expenses through the summer if Parliament passes the measures.

 “The only way to avoid immediate default is for Parliament to endorse the revised economic program,” said Olli Rehn, the European Union’s top economic and monetary affairs official. “Let me say this clearly: There is no Plan B to avoid default.”

 In Brussels, European Union officials said they were working on contingency plans, including an effort to persuade the Greek opposition leader Antonis Samaras of the New Democracy Party to support the measures.

 After the vote on the austerity measures, Parliament is scheduled on Thursday to consider a bill on how each of the measures will be carried out. Last year, Greece’s foreign lenders imposed austerity measures after they provided a first round of aid.

 Since then, Greece has cut the wages of its 800,000 public workers — a quarter of the work force — by more than 10 percent.

 The demonstration on Tuesday was one of the first in which labor unions joined with the younger demonstrators who have gathered in downtown Athens every night for the past month. Security forces fired tear gas to thin out the crowd, sending the demonstrators fleeing into side streets.

 A police official said that 23 people were detained, with five later arrested, and that 21 officers were injured, none seriously.

 Near Syntagma Square, a 40-year-old woman who gave her name only as Eirini, said she had been a secretary in a construction firm but had been out of work for more than five months.

 “I’m here because we have nothing to lose,” she said, pushing down the surgical mask she used to filter out the tear gas. “We know very well that in six months, when they run out of money in the banks, we will be even more broke and hungry.”

 She added, “I think that in one year, we are going to go to Syntagma, take out all the grass and plant tomatoes.” ||||| Riot police fired tear gas at youths hurling rocks near the Greek finance ministry Tuesday, trying to quell the anger unleashed by a general strike as parliament debated new cost-cutting measures.

 A demonstrator kicks a tear gas canister against police during a demo in Athens on Tuesday June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a... (Associated Press)

 Demonstrators run away from tear gas during a demo in Athens on Tuesday June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round of austerity... (Associated Press)

 Demonstrators pull an umbrella as another burns during a demo in Athens on Tuesday June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round... (Associated Press)

 Greek soldiers wearing traditional military uniforms march during a ceremonial changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the foot of the Greek parliament building as protesters (in foreground)... (Associated Press)

 A protester sits outside the docked ships during a 48-hour strike in the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, June 28, 2011. Workers across Greece walked off the job Tuesday at the start of the 48-hour... (Associated Press)

 Tourists pass outside the ships during a 48-hour strike in the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, June 28, 2011. Workers across Greece walked off the job Tuesday at the start of the 48-hour general... (Associated Press)

 Pedestrians cross empty rails at the train station in Athens during a strike Tuesday, June 28, 2011. Public transport workers joined a nationwide 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round... (Associated Press)

 Tourists from Australia sleep outside the ships during a 48-hour strike in the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, June 28, 2011. Workers across Greece walked off the job Tuesday at the start of the... (Associated Press)

 Passengers change their tickets at Olympic Air's cashiers during a four-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers at the Athens International Airport Tuesday, June 28, 2011. Workers across Greece... (Associated Press)

 Demonstrators run away from tear gas during a demo in Athens on Tuesday June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round of austerity... (Associated Press)

 Passengers sleep during a four-hour work stoppage by air traffic controllers at the Athens International Airport Tuesday, June 28, 2011. Workers across Greece walked off the job Tuesday at the start of... (Associated Press)

 Demonstrators throw stones against police during a demo in Athens on Tuesday June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a new round of austerity... (Associated Press)

 Riot police take position outside the Greek Parliament prior of a demo in Athens on Tuesday June 28, 2011. Greece's beleaguered government is bracing for a 48-hour general strike as lawmakers debate a... (Associated Press)

 The latest austerity measures must pass in two parliamentary votes Wednesday and Thursday if Greece is to receive bailout funds from the EU and the IMF that will keep it from becoming the first eurozone nation to default on its debts.

 The clashes with police came at the start of a two-day general strike called by unions furious that the government's new euro28 billion ($40 billion) austerity program will slap taxes on minimum wage earners and other struggling Greeks. The measures come on top of other spending cuts and tax hikes that have sent the Greek unemployment rate soaring to over 16 percent.

 Hooded youths ripped up paving stones and set trash bins on fire in central Athens as police gave chase and fired tear gas and stun grenades. Earlier, about 20,000 people had marched peacefully in two separate demonstrations, while another 7,000 protested in the northern city of Thessaloniki without incident.

 Everyone from doctors and ambulance drivers to casino workers and even actors at a state-funded theater were joining the strike or holding work stoppages for several hours.

 Hundreds of flights were canceled or rescheduled as air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours in the morning _ and were holding another walkout in the evening. Strikes by public transport workers snarled traffic across the capital, while other protesters blockaded the port of Piraeus.

 "The situation that the workers are undergoing is tragic and we are near poverty levels," said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the PAME union at the Piraeus blockade. "The government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war."

 Lawmakers began debating the latest austerity measures Monday and were continuing Tuesday. The package and an additional implementation law must be passed so the European Union and the International Monetary Fund release the next installment of Greece's euro110 billion ($156 billion) bailout loan.

 Without that euro12 billion ($17 billion) installment, Greece faces the prospect of a default next month _ a potentially disastrous event that could drag down European banks, hurt other financially troubled European countries and even shock the whole global financial system.

 But even lawmakers from the governing Socialists have been upset over the latest measures demanded by international creditors, and Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to contain an internal party revolt. He reshuffled his cabinet earlier this month to try to ensure his party's support for this vote, but the Socialists still only have a 5-seat majority in the 300-member Parliament.

 Papandreou urged lawmakers Monday to fulfill a "patriotic duty" by voting in favor of the new measures, but two of his own lawmakers have suggested they won't.

 European officials have also been pressuring Greece's the main conservative opposition party to back the austerity bill.

 "Both the future of the country and financial stability in Europe are at stake," European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said. "I fully respect the prerogatives and the sovereignty of the Greek Parliament in the ongoing debate. And I trust that the Greek political leaders are fully aware of the responsibility that lies on their shoulders to avoid default."

 But conservative party leader Antonis Samaras has refused, arguing that while he backs some austerity measures, the overall thinking behind the package is flawed.

 Greece remains frozen out of bond markets and is surviving on the euro110 billion ($156 billion) in promised bailout loans. But the initial plan had assumed that Greece would be able to return to the markets next year.

 That won't happen, and a result Athens is negotiating for a second bailout, which Papandreou has said will be roughly the same size as the first.

 Papandreou said he hoped the terms would be better than those for the first bailout.

 "I call on Europe, for its part, to give Greece the time and the terms it needs to really pay off its debt, without strangling growth, and without strangling its citizens," he said.

 Papandreou's new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said the government acknowledged the new cuts were "unfair" and that he hoped negotiations over a second bailout would be concluded by the end of the summer.

 "These measures will take us from running budget deficits to achieving primary surpluses," he said. "It's a difficult but necessary step."

 But many Greeks insist they should not be forced to pay for a crisis they believe the politicians are responsible for.

 "We don't owe any money, it's the others who stole it," said 69-year-old demonstrator Antonis Vrahas. "We're resisting for a better society for the sake of our children and grandchildren."

 Even with the new austerity measures, many investors still believe that Greece is heading for some sort of default because its overall debt burden is too great.

 ___

 Demetris Nellas in Athens contributed. |||||


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 The Sound of Status: People Know High-Power Voices When They Hear Them

 Being in a position of power can fundamentally change the way you speak, altering basic acoustic properties of the voice, and other people are able to pick up on these vocal cues to know who is really in charge, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

 We tend to focus on our words when we want to come across as powerful to others, but these findings suggest that basic acoustic cues also play an important role:

 “Our findings suggest that whether it’s parents attempting to assert authority over unruly children, haggling between a car salesman and customer, or negotiations between heads of states, the sound of the voices involved may profoundly determine the outcome of those interactions,” says psychological scientist and lead researcher Sei Jin Ko of San Diego State University.

 The researchers had long been interested in non-language-related properties of speech, but it was former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher that inspired them to investigate the relationship between acoustic cues and power.

 “It was quite well known that Thatcher had gone through extensive voice coaching to exude a more authoritative, powerful persona,” explains Ko. “We wanted to explore how something so fundamental as power might elicit changes in the way a voice sounds, and how these situational vocal changes impact the way listeners perceive and behave toward the speakers.”

 Ko, along with Melody Sadler of San Diego State and Adam Galinsky of Columbia Business School, designed two studies to find out.

 In the first experiment, they recorded 161 college students reading a passage aloud; this first recording captured baseline acoustics. The participants were then randomly assigned them to play a specific role in an ensuing negotiation exercise.

 Students assigned to a “high” rank were told to go into the negotiation imagining that they either had a strong alternative offer, valuable inside information, or high status in the workplace, or they were asked to recall an experience in which they had power before the negotiation started. Low-rank students, on the other hand, were told to imagine they had either a weak offer, no inside information, or low workplace status, or they were asked to recall an experience in which they lacked power.

 The students then read a second passage aloud, as if they were leading off negotiations with their imaginary adversary, and their voices were recorded. Everyone read the same opening, allowing the researchers to examine acoustics while holding the speech content constant across all participants.

 Comparing the first and second recordings, the researchers found that the voices of students assigned to high-power roles tended to go up in pitch, become more monotone (less variable in pitch), and become more variable in loudness than the voices of students assigned low-power roles.

 “Amazingly, power affected our participants’ voices in almost the exact same way that Thatcher’s voice changed after her vocal training,” says Galinsky.

 And the students’ vocal cues didn’t go unnoticed. A second experiment with a separate group of college students revealed that listeners, who had no knowledge of the first experiment, were able to pick up on these power-related vocal cues to determine who did and did not have power: Listeners ranked speakers who had been assigned to the high-rank group as more likely to engage in high-power behaviors, and they were able to categorize whether a speaker had high or low rank with considerable accuracy.

 In line with the vocal changes observed in the first experiments, listeners tended to associate higher pitch and voices that varied in loudness with high-power behaviors. They also associated louder voices with higher power.

 “These findings suggest that listeners are quite perceptive to these subtle variations in vocal cues and they use these cues to decide who is in charge,” says Galinsky.

 This research was partially supported by a grant to the first author from the Dispute Resolution Research Center at Northwestern University.

 All data and materials have been made publicly available via Open Science Framework and can be accessed at https://osf.io/cw6y8/?view_only=24a186cebd52441ea0170ed63caf70ab and https://osf.io/5hzv9/?view_only=94aa2b0312c3463493ca6f61c5fc3811, respectively. The complete Open Practices Disclosure for this article can be found at http://pss.sagepub.com/content/by/supplemental-data.

 This article has received badges for Open Data and Open Materials. More information about the Open Practices badges can be found at https://osf.io/tvyxz/wiki/view/ and http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/1/3.full. |||||

– When we want to be perceived as powerful—think parents scolding misbehaving kids or shoppers haggling with car dealers—we tend to focus not just on our words, but the way we deliver them. Researchers at San Diego State University report in the journal Psychological Science that when people want to portray themselves as powerful or authoritative, their voices go up in pitch, become more monotone, and exhibit more variation in loudness. What's more, listeners hear and identify these differences as powerful, reports Medical News Today. The researchers were inspired to study vocal volume and inflection because of the oft-told story of Margaret Thatcher's vocal coaching when she became prime minister of the UK, reports the Association for Psychological Science. "It was quite well known that Thatcher had gone through extensive voice coaching to exude a more authoritative, powerful persona," one researcher says. "Amazingly, power affected our participants’ voices in almost the exact same way that Thatcher's voice changed after her vocal training," another says. (By this logic, these people are probably speaking pretty quietly.)


News article:

Revolutionmuslim.com was named by Roshonara Choudhry in her police interviews as one of the sites which radicalised her. Choudhry was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday for attempting to murder the former Labour minister Stephen Timms .

 The site praises her as a “mujaahidah,” or holy warrior, saying: “We ask Allah to keep her safe and secure, to hasten her release and to reward this heroine immensely.”

 It published a list of all the MPs who voted for the Iraq war together with an instruction to Muslims to try to kill them, saying: “We ask Allaah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of Jihaad against those who voted for the countless rapes, murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence of their vote.”

 It also appears to incite further attacks on Mr Timms, publishing details of his constituency surgery times and venues, and even a link which shows readers where they can buy a £15 kitchen knife, similar to the one used by Choudhry, from Tesco Direct.

 The website adds: “If you want to track an MP, you can find out their personal website after typing their name in this website. In their personal website, you can usually find the time and location of their surgeries where you can encounter them in person.”

 The site then lists the 139 Conservative MPs that voted for the war and the 244 Labour MPs. It said that no Liberal Democrats voted for the war but added: “They have now formed a coalition government with the Conservatives.” Accompanying the statement is a prayer in Arabic to “destroy your enemy and the enemies of Islam” naming Mr Timms and the judge in the Choudhry case, Jeremy Cooke.

 The website is hosted in the US, where the White House has been urged by British ministers to take urgent action against similar sites.

 Patrick Mercer, a former chairman of the Commons homeland security subcommittee and one of the MPs on the 'death list’, said: “If they think this will change my opinions or my conduct in any way, they can think again. These sites are extremely dangerous, as the case of Choudhry has shown, and this one must be taken down immediately.”

 Choudhry stabbed Mr Timms twice at one of his surgeries in Beckton, east London, in May, saying she had done so to punish him for voting for the Iraq war.

 The Revolutionmuslim website claims some foreknowledge of Choudhry’s actions, saying that four days before her “operation,” she read a work entitled “The Book of Jihad” by Abi Zakaryya Al Dimashqi Al Dumyati, something not reported in any of the coverage of the case.

 It is not clear whether this claim is true. However, Choudhry did directly cite “a website called revolutionmuslim” in her police interviews as one of several radical sites she looked at.

 She told officers that she had been radicalised after “learning more about Islam” online. She said she had dowloaded more than a hundred hours of sermons by Anwar al-Awlaki, the terrorist cleric described by the US as the spiritual leader of three of the 9/11 hijackers. Awlaki, an American citizen living in Yemen, has been singled out by the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, as a figure “of particular concern” to the security services.

 Revolutionmuslim.com includes a number of YouTube videos of Awlaki, which can still be accessed, despite the provider promising to take them down. It also includes a video by Abdullah Azzam, the al-Qaeda spiritual leader, another figure cited as an influence by Choudhry in her police interviews.

 The website claims a number of authors. It appears to be strongly influenced by supporters of the British Muslim extremist Anjem Choudary, formerly a senior figure in the now banned Al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK groups. It carries a number of press releases and video clips from Choudary and also includes a video of Abu Izzadeen, another British extremist linked to Choudary, emerging from prison.

 Islam4UK earned notoreity when it proposed to demonstrate against the ceremonies held in Wootton Basset, Wiltshire, to honour service personnel killed in Afghanistan, though the demonstrations never took place. Revolutionmuslim recently publicised a flag-burning ceremony to be attended by Choudary – which also apparently never happened – outside the US embassy in London on the ninth anniversary of September 11.

 One of the site’s alleged authors, a 20-year-old American from Virginia, Zachary Chesser, was arrested in July and charged with providing material support to a Somali-based al-Qaeda terrorist group. Chesser, an alleged follower of al-Awlaki, was reported to have written a post on the site threatening the creators of the American cartoon series, South Park, with death for including a caricature of Mohammed in one episode.

 Revolutionmuslim’s writers – all operating under aliases – include at least three people who state on their online profiles that they are British. Three of the profiles link to websites closely connected to Choudary and his allies, including the banned cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed. Revolutionmuslim.com advertises an “Islamic revival conference” due to take place later this month in East London with speakers including Choudary, Izzadeen and, by telephone from Lebanon, Bakri Mohammed.

 The website appears to be hosted by a service provider called Enom, based in Bellevue in the US state of Washington. Calls to the company were not answered.

 Choudary could not be reached for comment. Contacted by The Daily Telegraph, Izzadeen denied involvement in the site but said it was a product of the “awakening” of Muslims. He did not endorse the site’s call for killings of MPs but refused to condemn it, saying: “I’m not a condemner of anything. People have their own views. We’ll just wait and see if anything happens.” ||||| MP 'hitlist' inspired Timms stabber

 By politics.co.uk staff

 A radical website visited by the woman who attempted to murder Labour MP Stephen Timms is being targeted by the Home Office.

 Roshonara Choudhry, who was jailed for life earlier this week after twice stabbing Labour MP Stephen Timms in an advice surgery, visited revolutionmuslim.com and cited it as having inspired her attack.

 The website, which is believed to be US-based, lists MPs who voted for the Iraq war and calls Choudhry a "heroine".

 "We ask Allah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of jihad against those who voted for the countless rapes, murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence of their vote," it states.

 The Home Office is attempting to place pressure on US authorities to force the removal of the list from the website.

 "We should all stand up against extremists, we will raise this with our overseas counterparts to encourage them to remove this content from the website," a spokesperson said.

 "We are determined to tackle extremism and always press for the removal of jihadist material on the internet. Where sites are hosted abroad our ability to close them down is limited."

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What is a shorter version of the above article?

– An extremist Muslim website has published a "kill list" of hundreds of British members of parliament who voted for the war in Iraq. The site, Revolutionmuslim.com, urges readers to follow the example of a young "holy warrior" Muslim woman who stabbed former British Labor Minister Stephen Timms and was sentenced this week to life in prison for attempted murder. “We ask Allah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of Jihad against those who voted for the countless rapes, murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence" of the politicians' vote, says the message. The site links to a place where readers can buy a kitchen knife like the one used by Roshonara Choudhry on Timms, and also offers instructions on how to track a politician's activities, the Telegraph reports. Revolutionmuslim.com is hosted in the US; the White House is being pressured by the British government to take action against such sites. "These sites are extremely dangerous, and this one must be taken down immediately," said the former chairman of Britain's homeland security.


News article:

The number 13 is synonymous with bad luck. It's considered unlucky to have 13 guests at a dinner party, many buildings don't have a 13th floor and most people avoid getting married or buying a house on a day marked by this dreaded number. Particularly superstitious folks even avoid driving on Friday the 13th.

 But is there any statistical proof to support the notion that Friday the 13th — or even just the number 13 itself — is unlucky?

 "No data exists, and will never exist, to confirm that the number 13 is an unlucky number," said Igor Radun of the Human Factors and Safety Behavior Group at the University of Helsinki's Institute of Behavioural Sciences in Finland. "There is no reason to believe that any number would be lucky or unlucky."

 Radun might very well be correct, but there are a few bits of scientific research that have given superstitious people a little more cause for concern, even if the scientists who performed the work aren't alarmed by their findings. [15 Weird Things Humans Do Every Day, and Why ]

 For starters, in a 1993 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers analyzed the traffic flow and number of injuries from car accidents on the southern section of London's M25 motorway during the five months that the 13th fell on a Friday between 1990 and 1992.

 They compared these numbers to data collected on Friday the 6th of the same months, and found that although there are consistently fewer vehicles on the road during the 13th — possibly as a result of superstitious people choosing not to drive that day, the researchers proposed — "the risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent" on the 13th.

 But before triskaidekaphobics, or those who fear the number 13, say "I told you so," it should be noted that although the data were authentic, the authors didn't mean for their conclusions to be taken seriously.

 "It's quite amusing and written with tongue firmly in cheek," said Robert Luben, a researcher at the school of clinical medicine at the University of Cambridge and one of the study's authors. "It was written for the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal, which usually carries fun or spoof articles."

 Many people took the study at face value, however, and it continues to be cited as valid evidence regarding the misfortune of both the number 13 and Friday the 13th .

 "(Some people) clearly didn't understand that the paper was just a bit of fun and not to be taken seriously," Luben told Life's Little Mysteries. "Many also assumed that the authors were 'believers.' I'm sure that most of these people hadn't read the paper, which suggests that people being superstitious affects their behavior."

 Since the 1993 study, other studies have been written showing that it's just women who have more accidents on Friday the 13th , with further studies concluding that's actually not the case. Other research results attempting to measure just how unlucky the number 13 is have been mixed.

 For example, in 2005, the United Kingdom newspaper The Telegraph analyzed the winning lottery balls dating back to when the UK National Lottery began in 1994. They found that the number 13 was the unluckiest ball, because it was drawn a total of 120 times since 1994, compared with the luckiest ball, number 38, which was drawn a total of 182 times. But, "of course, there is no way of predicting which balls will be luckiest in the future," the article cautions.

 Not everyone has found similar patterns.

 "Unfortunately, most of studies dealing with Friday the 13th and the number 13 are solely focused on statistical data, such as accident data, stock exchange data, etc., without any attempt to establish a 'direct' relationship between belief, or superstition, and behavior," said Radun, who is co-author of the 2004 study "Females Do Not Have More Injury Road Accidents on Friday the 13th," which was published in the journal BMC Public Health. "Therefore, it is not surprising that contradictory results may occur … In our study, we did not find that either women or men have more injury road accidents on Friday the 13th compared to previous and following Fridays." [Superstitions Bring Real Luck, Study Reveals ]

 Luben agrees that studies about statistics surrounding the number 13 should acknowledge how people's superstitions influence how they act. He wrote in his study that "superstitions affect behavior in all cultures in all parts of the world in some form or other." So whether you vow to never play the number 13 in a lottery or declare that 13 is your lucky number just to go against the grain, the stigma surrounding the number still influenced your decision.

 "There are no lucky or unlucky numbers; they exist only in our heads – or in the heads of some of us – and they might become lucky or unlucky only if we make them as such," Radun said.

 But many triskaidekaphobics, who count author Stephen King and former president Franklin Roosevelt among their ranks, don't need statistical evidence or hard facts to back up their conviction that the number is truly cursed. As with any superstition, no matter how irrational it may be, some people will still choose to believe in it.

 Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google+. ||||| Though the summer wedding season may be at its peak, today will be especially quiet for wedding vendors like Lethal Rhythms, a company based in Atlanta that provides professional mix DJ services in the Southeast.

 That's because couples are hesitant to begin their matrimony on Friday the 13th, leading many businesses to offer discounts to ease their superstitions.

 In Photos: Myths and History of Friday the 13th

 Kra Riddell, market manager for Lethal Rhythms, said she has no events planned today, not even an anniversary or birthday party. In fact, Riddell said, Friday the 13th seems to regularly affect general hospitality businesses in Atlanta.

 "I think the Southeast is very superstitious," said Riddell, who has worked for the company since 2010.

 Although there are plenty of client meetings scheduled today, the clubs and nightlife events for which Lethal Rhythms provides services also quiet down when Friday the 13th rolls around.

 "It's very bare in the clubs. I feel like people stay inside," Riddell said.

 Ridell recently became engaged, and though she is not superstitious she said she "definitely would not get married on Friday the 13th."

 "I'm not a big believer in karma, but I don't want anything to help it," she said with a laugh.

 Anja Winikka, site editor of wedding site TheKnot.com, said Friday the 13th is not "couples' wedding date of choice."

 "Choosing a wedding date is important from the beginning and they want it to be special to them," she said.

 Fridays are not as sought after as Saturdays for weddings, though Fridays and Sundays are becoming more popular as vendors offer discounts to couples who choose to wed on those off-peak days.

 But Friday weddings appear to be significantly infrequent on Friday the 13th.

 According to The Knot's annual weddings survey, there will be 2,845 weddings today, compared to 3,111 last Friday. There will be 4,190 next Friday, July 20 and 3,407 weddings on Friday, July 27. However, there will be a whopping 17,886 weddings on Saturday.

 In April, when the last Friday the 13th occurred, the unpopularity of Friday the 13th was even more apparent.

 On Friday, April 13, there were 1,764 weddings, only slightly higher than the Friday of the previous week, 1,449. That was Easter and Passover weekend, a typically unpopular wedding time.

 By comparison, there were 3,329 weddings on Friday, April 20, and 2,303 on Friday, April 27.

 Of note, April is not as popular for weddings and considered a "shoulder" month because it flanks the main season, Winikka said.

 Jason Shukovsky, director of catering for The Crystal Plaza, a private mansion in Livingston, N.J., said Friday the 13ths are "a big more challenging to sell" so the company may offer a discount of 10 to 15 percent.

 He said many clients take the discounted offer.

 "We're a little pricier than some of our competition in the area. If we give them an opportunity to work a little more within their budget, it works out better for them," he said. "People are more bargain-conscious now, more than they have ever been, due to the economic times."

 The company hosts about 370 events a year, one at a time, 300 of which are weddings, Shukovsky said.

 Not all brides and grooms are swayed away from Friday the 13th because of superstition.

 One couple intentionally chose to get married on a future Friday the 13th at The Crystal Plaza and will have a "skull and crossbones" theme. That date was already selected by another couple that was admittedly hesitant over the superstition around Friday the 13th. So Shukovsky offered that couple another Friday with a discount, which they gleefully accepted.

 Sari Lindeman, sales manager at Bellagala, a full-service wedding boutique based in Minneapolis, said the company has eight weddings planned today, a "significant increase" in business compared to the corresponding Friday, July 15, last year.

 "If they find the day they love and vendors are open to work with them, I think the Friday the 13th superstition goes out the window," Lindeman said.

 Bellagala didn't offer deeper discounts on the three Friday the 13th dates this year compared to any other off-peak date.

 One bride who chose Friday the 13th told Lindeman that she was leery at first out of concern about any superstitious guests. But in the end, she didn't allow it affect her final decision.

 Bellgalla's staff isn't allowing superstition to affect its work either. Lindeman said the company is abuzz with the same excitement and energy as before any busy wedding weekend.

 "As our profession, this is what we do day-in and day-out," she said. "It's not taken lightly because it's such an important day for our couples." ||||| Does Friday the 13th freak you out? If so, hold on to your rabbit's foot extra tight, because there are three of these supposedly unlucky dates in 2012, though perhaps luckily, this Friday (July 13) is the last of them. Though, there's always some fear to be had next year, 2013.

 Read on for 13 strange facts about this day of superstition.

 1. This year is a special one for Friday the 13ths: There are three of them: Jan. 13, April 13 and July 13. The freaky thing? The dates fall exactly 13 weeks apart. That hasn't happened since 1984.

 2. If that scares you, you may have paraskavedekatriaphobia (also known as friggatriskaidekaphobia). Those are the scientific terms for fear of Friday the 13th. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

 3. It's not clear when or why Friday the 13th became associated with bad luck. The association may be biblical, given that the 13th guest at the Last Supper betrayed Jesus. His crucifixion was the next day, apparently a Friday. Or maybe 13 suffers from coming after the more-pleasing number 12, which gets to number the months, the days of Christmas and even the eggs in a dozen. (There are also 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles of Jesus.)

 4. Whatever the reason, fear of 13 has spread far and wide: Hotels and hospitals often skip the 13th floor, and even airports quietly omit gate 13 sometimes.

 5. The next year in which we'll have three Friday the 13ths is 2015. They'll fall in February, March and November.

 6. If you think your Friday the 13th is likely to be bad, be glad you aren't a 14th-century Knight Templar. On Oct. 13, 1307, officers of King Philip IV of France raided the homes of thousands of these Crusades warriors, imprisoning them on charges of illegal activities. Though the charges weren't proven, more than a hundred died of terrible torture, according to "Tales of the Knights Templar" (Warner Books, 1995).

 7. Fittingly, director of psychological thrillers Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13th — Friday, Aug. 13, 1999, would have been his 100th birthday. Perhaps aptly titled "Number 13," a film that was supposed to be Hitchcock's directorial debut never made it past the first few scenes and was shut down due to financial problems. He allegedly said the film wasn't very interesting. (Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was born on Friday the 13th, in August 1926.)

 8. Why does the Friday the 13th superstition stick so firmly in our minds? According to Thomas Gilovich, who chairs the department of psychology at Cornell University, our brains are almost too good at making associations.

 "If anything bad happens to you on Friday the 13th, the two will be forever associated in your mind, and all those uneventful days in which the 13th fell on a Friday will be ignored," Gilovich said in a statement. [13 Superstitions & Traditions Explained]

 9. For pagans, 13 is actually a lucky number. It corresponds with the number of full moons in a year.

 10. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is said to have avoided travel on the 13th day of any month, and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

 11. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest. [13 Odd Occurrences on Friday the 13th]

 12. Stock broker and author Thomas W. Lawson, in his 1907 novel "Friday the Thirteenth," wrote of a stockbroker's attempts to take down Wall Street on the unluckiest day of the month. Reportedly, stock brokers after this were as unlikely to buy or sell stocks on this unlucky day as they were to walk under a ladder, according to accounts of a 1925 New York Times article.

 13. This fear of Friday the 13th can be serious business, according to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C., which, among other things, offers therapy to help people overcome their fear of the freaky friday. Their estimates suggest hundreds of millions of dollars, up to $900 million are lost due to people's fear of flying or doing the business as usual that day, though that number isn't backed up with other estimates.

 Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Good news for those with paraskevidekatriaphobia: It's the last Friday the 13th of the year, and if you learn to say that word—meaning fear of Friday the 13th—you'll get rid of your fear, according to a superstition relayed by NPR. But is there any truth behind the fear? A study in the early 1990s suggests so: Researchers found that "the risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52%" on a Friday the 13th, according to Life's Little Mysteries. That study, however, was "written with tongue firmly in cheek," notes an author, although authentic data were used. Later studies have been mixed, with some data suggesting women experience more accidents on the date, and others rejecting the idea entirely. Ridiculous or not, the superstition certainly has real-world effects: Many avoid the date for weddings, prompting some wedding-related businesses to give Friday the 13th discounts, notes ABC News. And one stress-management group figures that up to $900 million may be lost because of people's avoidance of flying and other normal activities on the date, LiveScience reports.


News article:

'Smoking gun' emails reveal News of the World bribes to police FOUR YEARS ago

 An internal report uncovered 'smoking gun' evidence of criminal behaviour at the News of the World four years ago, it emerged yesterday.

 The damning dossier was based on 300 emails that suggested hacking was widespread and journalists were paying police.

 However it was not handed to Scotland Yard until last month. The revelation adds to mounting claims of a cover-up by News International bosses, who paid hush money to several high-profile hacking victims.

 Criminal behaviour: An internal report uncovered 'smoking gun' evidence at the News of the World four years ago, it has emerged

 Documents leaked to the Sunday Times, which is owned by News International, allegedly show a ‘cabal’ of six journalists acted as ‘gatekeepers’ to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who carried out hacking for the paper on a huge scale.

 Sources said the emails show clear proof of criminal offences.

 One told the Sunday Times: ‘During its document trawl on the hacking stuff they discovered some emails which seem to suggest that senior journalists had been paying substantial sums of money to police officers. They were clearly evidence of serious crime.’

 Smoking gun: Emails uncovered in an internal investigation revealed reporters were paying bribes to police

 Further details of the alleged cover-up were revealed by the BBC’s Robert Peston, who is close to News International’s chief troubleshooter, Will Lewis.

 He said that four years ago, the company found emails showing payments were being made to the police for information, although this evidence of alleged criminal behaviour was not handed to the Met until this June.

 Although the emails do not identify police officers by name, they cross refer to the company’s cash records which identify the same four-figure sums mentioned in the emails. The total amount is said to be in the region of £120,000.

 They also allegedly show that phone hacking went wider than the activities of a single rogue reporter. That was the News of the World’s initial claim when the paper’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, was jailed in 2007 – the year in which the emails were found.

 In a letter presented to the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, Harbottle & Lewis confirmed it had been asked by News International to review whether the illegal actions of Goodman were known to his News of the World colleagues.

 A further 2,200 News of the World emails, which may contain evidence of criminal behaviour by the paper’s staff, are reported to be missing.

 In this letter, dated 29 May 2007, and sent to Jon Chapman of News International, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis said they did ‘not find anything in those emails which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman’s illegal actions were known about and supported by both or either of Andy Coulson, the editor, and Neil Wallis, the deputy editor, and/or that Ian Edmondson, the news editor, and others were carrying out similar illegal procedures’.

 The letter from Mr Abramson to Mr Chapman makes no mention of whether the emails contain evidence of wrongdoing by journalists other than Mr Goodman.

 However, when Will Lewis and his fellow News International executives re-acquired those emails from Harbottle & Lewis, they found what they perceived to be evidence that the illegal phone hacking went wider than just the activities of Mr Goodman and there were potentially illegal payments to the police.

 A further 2,200 News of the World emails, which may contain evidence of criminal behaviour by the paper’s staff, are reported to be missing.

 The revelations will pile pressure on News International’s chairman, James Murdoch, son of Rupert, and he could even face criminal charges in both Britain and America.

 Former home secretary Alan Johnson has suggested he could be prosecuted under anti-snooping legislation. This is because Mr Murdoch admitted in a statement last Thursday that he had approved out of court settlements to hacking victims.

 He said he was not aware of the specific details, but legal action could still possibly be taken under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000, which covers the ‘criminal liability of directors’.

 Four years ago the then executive chairman of News International, Les Hinton, told MPs he believed royal editor Goodman was acting alone.

 Yates of the Yard faces calls to quit after apology for c**p investigation

 By MARTIN DELGADO

 Politicians called for a senior Scotland Yard officer to step down yesterday hours after he made an unprecedented apology for his handling of the hacking affair.

 John Yates, who is an assistant commissioner in the Met, said he deeply regretted not launching a second probe into the News of the World scandal two years ago.

 He said he had let down the victims and the Yard had been damaged.

 Apology: Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner John Yates has admitted he let down the victims of phone hacking in the first investigation

 ‘I didn’t do a review,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph. ‘Had I known then what I know now, all bets are off. I would never have reached this conclusion.

 ‘I am accountable and it happened on my watch and it’s clear I could have done more.

 ‘I have regrettably said the initial inquiry was a success. Clearly now that looks very different.’

 Mr Yates also dismissed claims – currently doing the rounds in police and media circles – that he had had any sort of relationship with Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International.

 Facing police questions: news International chief executive Rebekah Wade

 His decision to make his apology in a newspaper, rather than to MPs, prompted a furious political reaction.

 Tory ex-minister David Mellor said: ‘If it had been left to the police it would all have been shovelled under the carpet and the heads of the Metropolitan Police would be down stuffing their faces in News International’s boardroom having a jolly old time with Rupert and his chums.’

 David Davis, another Tory former minister, said: ‘He should be appearing in front of parliament and answering questions, not putting out effectively a press release himself.’

 Mr Yates said News of the World staff had covered up the ‘industrial scale’ of the phone hacking operation by insisting just one rogue reporter was to blame.

 ‘When we made the arrests in 2006 on the day we went to Wapping there was a Mexican stand-off, a lock down, and they wouldn’t let us in,’ he said.

 The initial police investigation led to the jailing of News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

 But, despite fresh allegations that thousands of public figures had been targeted, Mr Yates decided in July 2009 that there was no new evidence.

 A senior Yard source said Mr Yates would not resign, adding: ‘He is an honourable man and he has done the right thing in making a very public apology.’

 Hindsight: Yates said that if he had known then what he knows now, he would have upped the police investigation into the phone hacking

 This was despite Yates saying he had never seen the 11,000 pages from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire's notebooks, which had been seized by police.

 'I'm not going to go down and look at bin bags,' he said. 'I am supposed to be an Assistant Commissioner. Perhaps I should have been more demanding. I am accountable, and it happened on my watch, and it's clear I could have done more.'

 'NINE JOURNALISTS AND THREE POLICE FACING JAIL

 At least nine journalists and three police officers face jail over the phone-hacking scandal, according to reports from inside News International.

 Internal papers dating from 2007 are understood to have contained evidence that hacking was more widespread than previously admitted. Scotland Yard was apparently not told about the document at the time but now has a copy.

 A News International source was last night quoted as saying: 'We were sitting on a ticking timebomb'.

 New documents are said to reveal that six journalists acted as 'gatekeepers' to private detective Glenn Mulcaire. They and three other journalists who knew about Mulcaire's activities may be charged, according to a Sunday Times report.

 Separately, a cache of emails and cash records is thought to shed light on potential four-figure payments to police officers.

 Meanwhile, News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks faces questioning by police in the coming days. The former News of the World editor is expected to be asked to present herself at a police station to explain, under caution, what she knew about phone-hacking and payments to police officers.

 A News International source insisted she would be treated as a witness, not a suspect.

 However, both the company and Scotland Yard refused to comment on whether Brooks would be quizzed.

 In his extraordinary interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Yates was also forced to deny that he had a relationship with the News of the World's former editor Rebekah Brooks, now News International's chief executive. He dismissed the claims as 'malicious gossip'.

 In a remarkable admission, Mr Yates, who has been widely criticised for failing to expose the full extent of the scandal, said: 'Should I have come out so quickly and said there wasn't anything in it? Tactically, I probably shouldn't have.

 'I should have cogitated and reflected but it's so bloo dy obvious there was nothing there [that we didn't already know].

 'I didn't do a review. Had I known then what I know now – all bets are off. In hindsight there is a shed load of stuff in there I wish I'd known.'

 Mr Yates was brought in two years ago to review the results of an earlier police investigation which led to the jailings of Mulcaire and News of the World Royal editor Clive Goodman.

 But last night he said: 'Not in a million years did I ever think we would get to this point when I came to it in July 2009. It was relatively straightforward.

 'The Guardian had raised a lot of issues. It was a bloody great story but the question was: was there anything new in it for us? The answer was no there wasn't.'

 In an unprecedented apology to the victims of phone hacking – and in particular to the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone messages were intercepted – Mr Yates said: 'We are all extremely shocked by it and it is a matter of massive regret we didn't deal with it earlier.

 'My byword has always been you look after the victims and the job will always resolve itself. I always put the victim first but here I didn't follow my principle and that is my greatest regret.'

 Of the rumours regarding his relationship with Mrs Brooks, he said: 'There has been a huge amount of malicious gossip. I have laughed at it all. It is quite astonishing. I take it with a large pinch of salt. It's not true.'

 He said other suggestions of improper relationships, made under the protection of parliamentary privilege, had deeply upset him.

 Describing them as 'contemptible, utterly untrue, and cowardly', he said: 'I will take whatever action I can to defend myself on that. It can be shown on any number of levels to be false. Apart from that, I haven't got any strong views about it.'

 The £180,000-a-year officer – dubbed 'Yates of the Yard' – split from Louise, his wife of 25 years, in the spring of 2009.

 The pair separated, around the time that Yates – educated at fee-paying Marlborough College – was appointed Britain's top anti-terror officer.

 He started a relationship with senior Yard Press officer Felicity Ross, who is in her 30s. She worked for Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson, though she has since left the police. Later in the interview, Mr Yates refers to the News International chief executive by her first name.

 Asked whether Mrs Brooks should resign, he says: 'I think it is a matter for Rebekah, her company and her conscience. It has nothing to do with us.'

 But he said it was a 'surprising development' that Mrs Brooks was still in her job.

 He added: 'I have been around this business a number of years and have good relationships with the media, which I think is part of my role to help inform the context and some of them are in the News of the World.'

 Mr Yates condemned the News of the World's failure to reveal emails relating to hacking until January of this year.

 The newspaper had covered up the 'industrial scale' of its phone-hacking operation by insisting that one 'rogue reporter' was to blame.

 He said Scotland Yard's reputation had been 'very damaged' by its failures.

 Explaining his much-criticised decision to close the case, he said: 'To have given the go-ahead for a full review of a case of that nature would have involved four or five people and five or six months work and a lot of resources and in July 2009 why would I do that?'

  ||||| News of the World is accused of hacking phones of 9/11 victims

 Murdoch journalists 'wanted phone records of British victims'

 Rebekah Brooks may be questioned under caution in coming weeks

 Ed Miliband launches bid to postpone BSkyB takeover

 Ground zero: News of the World reporters allegedly tried to hack phones of 9/11 victims

 News of the World reporters tried to hack the voicemails of dead 9/11 victims, a former New York policeman claimed last night.

 He alleged he was contacted by News of the World journalists who said they would pay him to retrieve the private phone records of the dead.

 The former cop, who now works as a private investigator, said that reporters wanted British victim’s mobile numbers and details of calls in the days surrounding the tragedy.

 The voicemails are likely to have included harrowing messages from distraught relatives desperately trying to contact their loved ones in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001.

 A source told the Daily Mirror: 'This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims’ private phone data.

 'He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their relatives.

 'His presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the UK. The PI said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.'

 The source said that the journalists were interested in getting the phone records belonging to the British victims of the attacks.

 Under American law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) makes it a crime for American companies to offer corrupt payments to foreign government officials.

 If the allegations of payments to police officers are proven, Mr Murdoch could face an American prosecution in his role as deputy chief operating officer the US-listed News Corp.

 A former New York police officer has also claimed that News of the World journalists tried to pay him for phone details of British 9/11 victims

 Capitalising on grief: Reporters were allegedly tried to get hold frantic calls as the tragedy unfolded

 In 2009, the former Hollywood producer Gerald Green was jailed for six months after being prosecuted under the FCPA for making $1.8m (£1.1m) in bribes to a Thai government official. Butler University law professor Mike Koehler, an FCPA expert, said: 'I would be very surprised if the U.S. authorities don't become involved in this News International conduct.'

 He said the FCPA could be invoked because News Corp is an American company and because the alleged payments would have been made in order for the newspaper to make money from the stories obtained.

 Brett Pulley, media correspondent for the Bloomberg news agency in New York, said: 'If the fall out were to continue, my goodness, if it were to impact James Murdoch, then we start to talk about it impacting News Corp’s succession plan, so that affects the company globally.'

 Paul Farhi, media correspondent for The Washington Post, added: 'There’s a whole domino effect. What else falls apart? Do bankers get nervous?

 'Rupert Murdoch had one flirtation with bankruptcy in the early 90s. He’s very dependent on the goodwill of Wall Street and of bankers.

 “His company is very profitable now — it’s not quite the same as the 1990s — but he doesn’t want these dominoes to keep toppling …

 'The fact he shut down a newspaper reflects how seriously the scandal is affecting a whole empire.'

 In Slate.com, noted commentator Jack Shafer wrote: 'Like all reverse-ferret manoeuvres, the closing of News of the World is designed to scatter and confuse the audience. It looks like the sacrifice of something very special to him, seeing as it was his first U.K. newspaper acquisition in 1968. But it's not.

 'It looks like atonement, but it's not. It's supposed to change the subject, but it's too late for that.

 'The most shocking thing to me about the paper's closure is what an empty gesture it is.

 'I expected much better from the genocidal tyrant.

 'The tricky thing about the reverse ferret is that unless you nab the beast the moment it bursts out of a pant leg, it can be impossible to apprehend.

 'From the way News Corp. is acting, it looks to me as if the Murdochs have lost control of their precious ferret. If I were Rupert Murdoch, I'd start wearing my socks over my cuffs. Ferrets will eat anything that looks and smells like meat.'

 T he claims came as the disgraced paper's owner Rupert Murdoch flew into London to take personal charge of the phone-hacking scandal.

 He first stopped at News International's headquarters in Wapping, East London, where he arrived in a red Range Rover, a copy of the last edition of the News of the World in his hands.

 Protective: Rupert Murdoch guides Rebekah Brooks away from the media as they leave his London flat

 Family affairs: James Murdoch leaves his father's Mayfair apartment yesterday. He later joined Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks at the Stafford Hotel where they were expected to dine together

 Later yesterday he put on an extraordinary show of support for Rebekah Brooks - apparently unconcerned about her imminent interview under police caution.

 Mrs Brooks, who has twice offered to resign over the controversy, was seen entering Mr Murdoch's Mayfair apartment at around 5.30pm yesterday.

 Later, when asked what was his top priority, the 80-year-old media mogul gestured to Mrs Brooks. 'She is,' he replied.

 The pair spent an hour in the apartment on the day the final edition of the News of the World hit news stands.

 Then, in front of hordes of photographers, Mr Murdoch walked Mrs Brooks out of the block of flats with his arm firmly around her.

 Last hurrah: Editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, poses with staff outside the newspaper offices for the last time

 They had beaming smiles as they crossed the road to the Stafford Hotel, where they were expected to dine together. They were later joined by Mr Murdoch’s son, James, the chairman of News International.

 Pictures of the 'Rupert and Rebekah show' will infuriate the victims of phone hacking and those who question her denials.

 The phone hacking row erupted last week when fresh allegations emerged that News or the World journalists paid private investigators to hack into the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

 They are also alleged to have listened in on voice messages from the family of Soham victims Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

 Hordes of advertisers finally abandoned the 'toxic' paper, forcing it to close, when it was revealed that they may have hacked into the phones of war dead.

 Alleged victims: The families of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are claimed to have had their phone hacked alongside Milly Dowler when she was missing

 A string of the paper's senior executives, including Mrs Brooks, face being quizzed as potential suspects or witnesses over their roles in the phone-hacking scandal which brought down the 168-year-old title she once edited.

 Mrs Brooks is set to be questioned under caution in London in the next two weeks. She will be asked to give a full account of her actions during the period from 2000 to 2003 when she was editor.

 It has also been revealed that at least nine former News of the World journalists, and three police officers, face charges over the hacking and corruption scandal.

 Meanwhile, a 63-year-old man arrested on Friday has been bailed. Officers would not confirm reports he is a private investigator

 The scandal has threatened Murdoch's controversial bid to take full control of BSkyB.

 Labour leader Ed Miliband plans to attempt to force through a Commons vote this week that could see the deal postponed until after the police investigation into phone hacking is complete.

 M<r Miliband said yesterday: 'The idea that this organisation, which has engaged in these terrible practices, should be allowed to take over BSkyB... without that criminal investigation having been completed, and on the basis of assurances from that self-same organisation… frankly that won’t wash with the public.' ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rupert Murdoch has met Rebekah Brooks over the phone-hacking scandal

 News International found e-mails in 2007 that appeared to indicate that payments were being made to the police for information, although this evidence of alleged criminal behaviour was not handed to the Metropolitan Police for investigation until 20 June of this year.

 According to sources, these e-mails were in the possession of the firm of solicitors, Harbottle & Lewis.

 They were retrieved from Harbottle & Lewis by lawyers acting for News Interernational and for William Lewis - general manager of News International - who is in charge of News International's clean-up of what went wrong at the News of the World (and who was recruited by News International last July).

 The e-mails appear to show Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World from 2003-2007, authorising payments to the police for help with stories.

 They also appear to show that phone hacking went wider than the activities of a single rogue reporter, which was the News of the World's claim at the time.

 Mr Coulson, who subsequently became David Cameron's director of communications in 10 Downing Street, was arrested and bailed last week.

 In a letter presented to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Harbottle & Lewis confirmed that it had been asked by News International to review whether the illegal actions of Clive Goodman - the News of the World's former royal editor, jailed in 2007 for phone hacking - were known to his News of the World colleagues.

 In this letter, dated 29 May 2007, and sent to Jon Chapman of News International, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis wrote that it had "reviewed e-mails to which you have provided access from the accounts of Andy Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Ian Edmondson, Clive Goodman, Neil Wallis, Jules Stenson".

 Mr Abramson confirmed to Mr Chapman that it "did not find anything in those e-mails which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman's illegal actions were known about and supported by both or either of Andy Coulson, the editor, and Neil Wallis, the deputy editor, and/or that Ian Edmondson, the news editor, and others were carrying out similar illegal procedures".

 The letter from Mr Abramson to Mr Chapman makes no mention of whether the e-mails contain evidence of wrongdoing by journalists other than Mr Goodman.

 However, when William Lewis and his fellow News International executives re-acquired those e-mails from Harbottle & Lewis, they found what they perceived to be prima facie evidence that the illegal phone hacking went wider than just the activities of Mr Goodman and that there were potentially illegal payments to the police.

 William Lewis went looking for these e-mails after the Metropolitan Police of Operation Weeting, who are investigating alleged phone hacking, enquired about the existence of 2,500 e-mails that Colin Myler - who replaced Andy Coulson as editor of the News of the World - mentioned to MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee.

 Mr Myler told the MPs these e-mails had been trawled through as part of his own inquiry into whether hacking was carried out by others than Mr Goodman.

 In response to a question by the MP Philip Davies about whether Mr Goodman was working alone, Mr Myler said: "I conducted this inquiry with Daniel Cloke, our director of human resources. Over 2,500 e-mails were accessed because we were exploring whether or not there was any other evidence to suggest essentially what you are hinting at. No evidence was found; that is up to 2,500 e-mails".

 William Lewis and his News International colleagues on a newly created management and standards committee have not found the full 2,500 e-mails mentioned by Mr Myler, just the sub-set of 300 that were passed to Harbottle & Lewis.

 The disclosure that News International found 300 e-mails as long ago as 2007, that indicated wider malpractices at the News of the World than those which led to the jailing of Mr Goodman and of the private detective Glenn Mulcaire, will pose very difficult questions for News International's chairman, James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch.

 In December 2007, James Murdoch took charge of News International as chief executive of the European and Asian operations of its parent company, News Corporation.

 Some four months later, in April 2008, he authorised the payment of a substantial out-of-court settlement, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds, with Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, over the hacking of Mr Taylor's phone.

 That settlement - which was agreed by Mr Murdoch and signed by News International's chief operating officer at the time, Clive Milner - contained a gagging clause, making it impossible for either party to talk about the settlement or what led to it (though many of its details were subsequently revealed by the Guardian).

 Mr Murdoch has now conceded that it was wrong of him to agree to the settlement with Mr Taylor and also to other out-of-court settlements made at a similar time.

 He said on Thursday: "I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret."

 There have been allegations that Mr Murdoch, in settling with Mr Taylor, was endeavouring to put a lid on the furore to deter a wider police investigation of the News of the World's behaviour.

 News International denies this.

 It insists that Mr Murdoch only approved the Taylor settlement and gagging clause because he was ignorant of the alleged transgressions by other News of the World journalists.

 In particular, News International says Mr Murdoch had no knowledge of the 300 e-mails that Harbottle & Lewis were asked to review. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Rupert Murdoch's shamed and now shuttered News of the World tried to pay a New York City police officer for phone records on British victims of 9/11, Reuters reports. The police officer, who now works as a private investigator, turned down the offer because it would "look bad," a source told the Daily Mail. Other substantial sums were apparently paid to British cops for information on a number of other news stories, reports the BBC. Emails dated 2007 indicate that then-editor Andy Coulson authorized payments to cops for inside info, according to sources. That email evidence, uncovered by a law office, was not turned over to investigators until last month. Coulson, who has been arrested in connection with the News of the World's burgeoning phone hacking scandal, was subsequently hired to be Prime Minister David Cameron's director of communications—but stepped down early this year.


– More time for the Donald to voice his views: Mitt Romney says he will skip the GOP debate to be moderated by Trump later this month, notes the Political Wire blog. He joins Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul in turning down the event, though they did so with more fireworks. Romney announced the move on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox, saying he couldn't cram it in on top of two other debates in December and a heavy campaign schedule, notes Mediaite. "I spoke with Donald Trump earlier today and indicated that we just can’t make this debate," he said. "We're going to focus on the other two we’ve got and on some campaigning." Romney said Trump understood and "wished me well." So far, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have accepted the invitation.

Expand this summary.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is the latest GOP presidential hopeful to announce he will not be participating in the December 27th debate schedule to be moderated by Donald Trump.

 Tuesday afternoon, Romney told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that, without a doubt, he will not be a part of that debate.

 no, I’m not participating. We have two debates in December I have agreed to participate in. The rest of the month is going to be spent campaigning, doing the political work you have to do to get the support of people in Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, so we’ll be hitting the trail. I spoke with Donald Trump earlier today and indicated that we just can’t make this debate and we foe cuts on the other two we’ve got and some campaigning.

 “He understood my perspective and wished me well,” Romney added.

 “It wasn’t more colorful than that?” Cavuto wanted to know.

 Have a look at the segment, via Fox News: ||||| December 06, 2011

 Mitt Romney said that he called Donald Trump to tell him that he will not be participating in the Trump-moderated debate that was proposed for late December.Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman have also declined. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have confirmed their attendance. |||||


– She is arguably the most famous shark in America, but Mary Lee has gone silent. After being tagged with a transmitter by research organization Ocearch back in 2012 off the coast of Cape Cod, Mary Lee gained a legion of loyal followers tracking her ocean journeys. (She has nearly 130,000 Twitter followers.) However, no ping has been registered since June, reports the Post and Courier of Charleston, SC. The good news is that this doesn't necessarily mean the end of Mary Lee: Chris Fischer of Ocearch tells Jacksonville.com that it's more likely the batteries in her transmitter, designed to last about five years, have finally given out. Fischer hopes to see Mary Lee again, but is OK if that never happens. “I feel like she’s done so much, it’s hard to ask for anything else,” he says. “For any individual shark, she’s undone more of the damage from Jaws than any shark in history, and she’s the most famous shark in history.” Mary Lee was 40 or 50 years old when first tagged, so Fischer figures she has another 20 years of life. Meanwhile, boaters and fishermen are being asked to keep an eye out, particularly off the coast of South Carolina. The 16-foot shark just happens to have a distinctive bite mark in her dorsal fin, raising hopes that if she is still swimming around out there, somebody will spot her.

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Here is a news article: In a hotel room in West Hollywood, Minnie Driver is looking at our photographer in disbelief. "You're not being serious," she says, hitching up a silk trouser leg and smacking a spangly high-heeled foot on to the table. The camera clicks a yes. "Honestly?" Click. "I can't believe you've got me doing this." But she throws her head back anyway, lets out a deep, throaty laugh and attempts a between-the- legs shot with a pool cue.

 Ten minutes later she's shimmying over to the dressing room to change into jeans, a smock top and biker boots and then she leads me out the door and down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, emblazoned with hundreds of pink terrazzo stars bearing A-listers' names. Not Driver's, though, because her star doesn't exist.

 It's hard to explain why, after being feted as Hollywood's hottest young thing at the beginning of her career, the golden girl mentioned ahead of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kate Winslet never went stratospheric. At 42 she's still a fine actor working steadily in film and television but she has never quite graduated to the leading-lady status that she seemed set to attain.

 Her latest film, Hunky Dory, a small British indie from Jon Finn, the producer of Billy Elliot, is a sweet if slightly odd high-school musical set in Wales during the heatwave of 1976. Her performance is brilliant, as is her Swansea accent, but the humour is quite specialised (and Welsh). "I just read the script and I could see the movie," she explains as we sit on a couch in a laid-back bar near the end of the boulevard. And was she tempted by the fact that she got to sing? "Well, yes, actually, that was totally it." She laughs. "There was this amazing scene where I sang in a working men's club, but… well… they bloody cut it." She pauses to take a sip of white wine. "I was gutted! But the whole storyline was just too sad for this little upbeat movie."

 Does she love the film? "I'm so proud of it, yes. But I wish we had more money." Now she's fired up. "I just wish we had more fucking money! But it was never meant to be a Glee. We all sang live, nothing was dubbed, and it was meant to be raw and scrappy. I just don't feel I've totally ticked off the singing movie."

 Would she like to do Glee? "Oh, I've been trying to get on that show since, well... God knows. I know, I'm not scared to say it! Gwyneth Paltrow completely stole my thunder!" She roars with laughter. "Oh shit, that's the bloody headline, isn't it? But no, seriously, I wish it had been me."

 She hasn't made a Hollywood blockbuster since Hard Rain – the 1998 disaster thriller that seemed to kick off a barrage of negative press. It wasn't just a bad film; it marked the beginning of a fall from grace. There were rumours of Driver being a diva on set. While she had been nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in Good Will Hunting and started dating Matt Damon, her co-star, he dumped her live on Oprah by announcing to the world that their relationship was over. It was a hideous episode, but Driver gained little of the same public sympathy that Jennifer Aniston, say, receives over romantic tribulations.

 Her reputation took a further battering when, in 2002, comments she made about Dame Judi Dench in an interview were taken out of context (she complimented Dench on her ability to transform into different characters, one of which was "small, round and middle-aged", but the tabloid press considered it a jibe and branded her "venemous"). She vowed never to talk to a newspaper again.

 And yet here we are, discussing the period that she describes as "awful" and "extremely difficult". Was the press portrayal of her completely off the mark? "I did have a fight with the producer on that film [Hard Rain]. I think that's where a lot of it came from. But we were shooting 16-hour days in a tank of millions of gallons of freezing-cold water. It was utterly miserable." She admits the situation had an impact on her career but insists she doesn't feel bitter. "God no. I would be an impoverished soul. It's part of the job, isn't it? Par for the course."

 Physically, Minnie Driver is very similar to the woman she was back then; her trademark black curls and angular jaw tell you so. Her accent is unwaveringly British. But she says she is much changed. "My 20s were a completely and utterly different time in my life," she explains. "They were just too myopic. All I did was make films and see whichever boyfriend I was dating at the time." In her 30s, she had a "crisis" and started making music in a beach trailer in Santa Monica. "It was my way of dealing with everything. I'd just broken up with someone [she called off her engagement to Josh Brolin amid rumours his stepmother Barbra Streisand was taking over the planning of their wedding] and needed to start expanding my life beyond work."

 She has lived in LA for the past 14 years, and also has a more permanent house in the hills. But the trailer fitted a certain view of her: "People seem to like this image of me being all boho and hippy. It's either that or I'm down on my luck, I've got no money, the work's dried up."

 Her personal life has been the focus of intense press scrutiny. In 2008 she revealed on Jay Leno that she was going to be a mother – her son, Henry Story Driver, is now three – but she wasn't going to identify the father. "We weren't together and he wasn't directly in the business," she says now, "so I chose to protect him and not have a rain of publicity." This didn't quite go to plan; the subject has barely been left alone since. "I know, but it's ridiculous. He's not famous. There's no big story."

 Later she will say that he was an episode writer on The Riches, the US TV series she starred in with Eddie Izzard until it was culled during the writers' strike after two seasons. Did she really want to reveal that? She shrugs. "I don't need to protect him any more. He can fend for himself. He's a grown-up." Is he a good dad? "Sort of. He's figuring it out... I mean, he hasn't been that involved; his choice. But he is now."

 As one of two children born out of an affair (her father, Ron Driver, a self-made millionaire, already had a wife and daughter who knew nothing of his other family), you wonder how at ease she is with being a single parent. "I had good friends around me, so it was sort of hilarious," she remembers of her pregnancy. "I was making a film at the time and the paparazzi would shout: 'Who's the sperm donor?' at me. Oh, it was an awful film," she cringes [Motherhood], "and I wouldn't do that again, but I was heavily pregnant and I just wanted to take my mind off it."

 Of her own unconventional upbringing, she says: "As a child, you just know what you know. And I grew up in this very immediate, amazing way. There wasn't much attachment to the past; my father lived his life and he didn't look much beyond that evening. But I think that's a good thing. I think I'm like him in a way."

 She is in two minds about whether to stay in America in the long-term. "I've never felt completely at home," she admits, "but I get the culture, I really do." She adores the fact that she can have an outdoors life camping, hiking and surfing. "But it is hard to exist in Hollywood." As an actor? "Yeah. Everywhere you go, you see an advert for a new film or TV show that you didn't get and you're reminded that it's pilot season and you've got to get on it. It's either that or ex-boyfriends. There was one time I realised I'd shagged a whole billboard! My sister pointed it out when we were driving past and we laughed so hard. But oh, that's so… I'm being so naughty."

 Next on her career wish list, she would like to return to the small screen, something which surprises me. "I still want an Oscar, and to work with Danny Boyle and Martin Scorsese – of course I want all of that. But what I really, really want to do is another US TV series. I do. I want that life. I want a regular pay cheque. And I want to be able to know when I can pick up Henry from school."

 Motherhood has changed her perspective. "It's not about me, which it was in my 20s. This is a very selfish business – and when you have a baby, that ceases to be the case. I actually think I've started to enjoy my job more because I take it less seriously."

 She describes herself as "robust person". Does she mean thick-skinned? "Not to the point where nothing affects you," she admits. "But you just let it affect you for an afternoon, then we're done. Otherwise you're going to start drinking heavily or taking drugs and ending up in rehab." You get the impression that she feels a sense of achievement that she hasn't done that. "I do. I really do. I'm proud of my life. I can handle myself. I'm not a nutcase. I know that."

 Hunky Dory is out in cinemas on 2 March

 • This article was amended on 21 February 2012 to clarify a reference to Dame Judi Dench. ||||| 'I don't need to protect him anymore': Minnie Driver FINALLY reveals the identity of son Henry's father

 She has always been incredibly secretive about the identity of her son's father.

 But now Minnie Driver has come forward to reveal that three-year-old Henry's dad was a writer on her former television show The Riches.

 The 42-year-old actress said the reason she had decided to disclose the man's identity was because she doesn't 'need to protect him any more'.

 'I don't need to protect him anymore': Minnie Driver has revealed her son Henry's father was a writer on her TV show The Riches

 She added to The Observer magazine: 'He can fend for himself. He's a grown-up.

 'We weren't together and he wasn't directly in the business so I chose to protect him and not have a rain of publicity.

 'He's not famous. There's no big story.'

 It had been reported before that the father was a TV writer, who ended his relationship with Driver when she found out she was pregnant.

 However, Driver admitted that the man, who she still refused to name outright, has now increased his involvement in their son's life.

 Fashionista: Minnie was seen at the Temperley show over the weekend at London Fashion Week

 She said: 'Is he a good dad? Sort of. He's figuring it out... I mean, he hasn't been that involved, his choice. But he is now.'

 The Conviction star had previously admitted she would like to have more children, but doesn't think she could cope raising two kids on her own.

 She said previously: 'Henry's dad and I probably wouldn't have any more together, but I would love to have more.'

 However, she admitted to The Observer: 'I couldn't do another one without a partner; I couldn't do two as a single mum, I really couldn't. It would be too much.'

 Speaking about how she coped during her pregnancy, the actress, who was one of two children born out of an affair - millionaire father Ron Driver, already had a wife and daughter who knew nothing of his other family - said: 'I had good friends around me, so it was sort of hilarious.

 Screen star: Minnie had met the mystery man while appearing on series The Riches, alongside Eddie Izzard

 'I was making a film at the time and the paparazzi would shout: 'Who's the sperm donor?' at me. Oh, it was an awful film [Motherhood] and I wouldn't do that again, but I was heavily pregnant and I just wanted to take my mind off it.'

 Minnie admitted that motherhood has left it's mark on her, and while she is admittedly involved in a 'very selfish business' - she said: 'I've started to enjoy my job more because I take it less seriously.'

 Now that her son has got older, the curly-haired actress has renewed her career ambitions. Her latest film, Hunky Dory, a small British indie from Jon Finn, the producer of Billy Elliot, is a high-school musical set in Wales during the heatwave of 1976.

 And she has set her sights on a return to the small screen - again for less than selfish reasons.

 'I still want an Oscar, and to work with Danny Boyle and Martin Scorsese – of course I want all of that.

  |||||
A summary of this is?

– Minnie Driver announced her pregnancy in 2008, and has managed to go all the time since without revealing the baby's father. But now that son Henry is three, "I don't need to protect (the father) anymore," Driver tells the Guardian. "He can fend for himself. He's a grown-up." So who is he? He was a writer on her short-lived TV series, The Riches, she says, and though she doesn't name names, the Mail briefly speculated she's referring to Tim Lea before changing its headline. (Driver and Lea dated in 2009, ninemsn notes.) As for whether Henry's father is a good dad, Driver will only say, "Sort of. He's figuring it out. … I mean, he hasn't been that involved; his choice. But he is now." Click to see what Driver craved during her pregnancy.


Write a summary based on this article:

Russia’s consumer rights watchdog is to investigate fidget spinners amid claims on state TV that the gadgets could be used by political opponents to lure children.

 According to the official statement published on Rospotrebnadzor’s website, the investigation was prompted by “concerns expressed by community of parents and teachers” and aims at researching how fidget spinners influence children’s and teenagers’ health and whether they can have any negative effects on it.

 In the meantime, the watchdog advises parents to supervise children playing with fidget spinners and to buy them from sellers they trust. ||||| “In such a manner, our opposition is luring the youth,” Ruslan Ostashko, the editor in chief of a pro-Kremlin website, PolitRussia.ru, told Rossiya 24 in a separate report. “Those who understand political technologies, they understand very clearly that this simple thing is controlling the masses.”

 Russia’s consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, got into the act on Tuesday, announcing that it would investigate the toys.

 “There has been an aggressive promotion of so-called spinners among children and teenagers in Russia recently,” the agency said in a statement. “Taking into consideration the anxiety among the community of parents and teachers, Rospotrebnadzor, in cooperation with child health research institutions, will study the effect spinners are having on children, including the possible negative impact.”

 Of course, Russia is not alone in harboring concerns about spinners. The hand-held devices have been modified to carry all manner of harmful things, like knives and firecrackers, becoming more weapon than toy.

 In Germany, customs officials confiscated 35 tons of spinners in May. There was no clear indication of who made them, said Christine Strass, a spokeswoman for the customs authority, and they posed a danger to young children, who could swallow small parts like the ball bearings that make the toys spin.

 Although some therapists have said that the spinners help people with attention disorders, various schools in the United States have banned them as a distraction.

 The toy seemed to achieve cult status recently after the comedy show “Saturday Night Live” produced a spoof advertisement for a diamond-encrusted fidget spinner from Cartier. ||||| Not everyone gets fidget spinners. The trendy new toy is meant to ease stress and anxiety but Russian state TV fears it could have more nefarious purposes, namely turning the nation’s youth to vandalism and acts of opposition against Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

 The palm-sized device “makes a person impressionable for manipulation,” news show host Alexey Kazakov said on one of multiple segments broadcast by the state-run Rossiya24 dedicated to the dangers of fidget spinners.

 The toys themselves look innocuous enough, mostly consisting of a bearing center with a three-pronged ring which spins when pushed. They come in different colours and have become a global phenomenon among young people, including young Russians.

 But over the last month, fidget spinners have puzzled Russian pundits, who suspect them to be U.S.-made tools of manipulation for Russia’s opposition.

 Read More: Putin’s mystery companion puzzles Kremlin watchers

 “Probably it is no coincidence that they started selling the spinners at events by the non-systemic opposition,” the host of the programme Virus said on Wednesday. Kazakov explained that according to experts the item could be used as “an object for zombifying” yourself, shutting down critical thinking and experiencing a kind of “hypnosis.”

 Featuring a report from a psychologist named Svetlana Filatova, the program claimed that spinners can help the dexterity of very young children but beyond that, the spinner “dulls” a person’s mind and focusing only on the spinner “takes you to a different world.”

 This was not the channel’s first on air assault against the fidget spinner, as the hazards associated with the device made another evening news broadcast last month.

 Fidget spinners “have frequently been seen in the hands of members of the non-systemic opposition,” Alexey Kazakov said at the time. He noted schoolchildren and college students were using the devices in Russia, where the trend was at its peak, unlike in the West where it was apparently waning.

 “As you can see here there is only writing in English, on the other side there is not a word in Russian,” Nikolay Sokolov, Kazakov’s co-anchor chimed in, brandishing a new fidget spinner. He underlined the lack of medical evidence that the item had many benefits but that the interest in it among scientists “is not big.”

 “Why the spinner has become so popular in Russia now is a mystery,” Sokolov said. “Who could be promoting it en masse?”

 According to Sokolov, fidget spinners were being distributed at opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s last rally on June 12

 Russian independent journalist Alexey Kovalev was among the first to draw attention to the initial bizarre segments on Russian national airwaves, tweeting his response.

 Fidget spinners are used by opposition to pacify followers and distract them from real issues. Because that's what opposition usually does. — Alexey Kovalev (@Alexey__Kovalev) July 12, 2017

 “God! Rossiya24 is running another segment about about the opposition zombifying people with spinners. Basically the Russian opposition is a massive job creator in the country,” he added. “Look at how many bloggers, analysts and TV hosts are hired.” |||||

– Fidget spinners are the hot new children's toy this year—but maybe they're also an American plot to topple the Russian government? "Those who understand political technologies, they understand very clearly that this simple thing is controlling the masses," the New York Times quotes the editor in chief of PolitRussia.ru as saying. Multiple reports about the dangers of fidget spinners have been appearing on Russian state-run media in recent weeks. It started with Rossiya 24 claiming opposition politicians were using them to gain the support of young Russians. An opposition leader was seen playing with a fidget spinner in court, and the toys were being sold at an opposition protest, the Telegraph reports. A reporter for Rossiya 24 said fidget spinners make it "easy to divert attention from the real problems." But the fidget spinner phenomena could be even more insidious than that. Commentators on Rossiya 24 said the toys might be an attempt to "zombify people" in Russia and make them open to manipulation. Newsweek reports commentators went on to claim users of fidget spinners could experience a form of "hypnosis." They added that playing with the toy "dulls" the mind and "takes you to a different place." A Rossiya 24 reporter pointed out that the package of a fidget spinner purchased in Moscow bore only English writing. Russia's consumer protection agency is now investigating the toys and encourages parents to supervise children using fidget spinners.