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 This will NOT appear anywhere on Newser ||||| Uber Technologies Inc. filed paperwork confidentially this week for its initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, as it races with smaller rival Lyft Inc. to be the first to market.

 The S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission puts Uber neck-and-neck with Lyft. Both planned IPOs are shaping up to be among the biggest in a spate of offerings aimed for 2019. Lyft said Thursday it had filed its S-1, and people familiar with the matter have said it is aiming to debut in March or April.

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A summary of this is?

– Ride-hailing giant Uber has filed confidential preliminary paperwork for selling stock to the public, the AP reports. That's according to a report late Friday in the Wall Street Journal. Citing people familiar with the matter whom it did not identify, the Journal says San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc. filed the paperwork earlier this week. That would indicate it could go public within the first three months of next year. Uber declined to comment on the Journal report. Uber's advisers have suggested the company could get a valuation of $120 billion; its latest valuation was $76 billion when it sold about a $500 million stake to Toyota in August. The filing would come on the heels of a similar move by Uber's smaller rival Lyft. The two initial public offerings could raise billions for the two companies to fuel their expansions, while giving investors their first chance to buy stakes in the ride-hailing phenomenon. (One report says 30% of Uber and Lyft drivers actually lose money driving.)


Here is a news article: Demonstrators hold a large flag, a combination of a Ukrainian, Crimean, and Tatar flags, in Independence Square in... Read More

 Demonstrators hold a large flag, a combination of a Ukrainian, Crimean, and Tatar flags, in Independence Square in Kiev, on March 23, 2014. Close

 Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his popularity surging to a five-year high by making Crimea a part of Russia... Read More

 Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his popularity surging to a five-year high by making Crimea a part of Russia again after 60 years and says he won’t be swayed by foreign retaliation. Close

 An employee assists a visitor at the reception in the headquarters of the Micex-RTS Moscow Exchange, Russia's... Read More

 An employee assists a visitor at the reception in the headquarters of the Micex-RTS Moscow Exchange, Russia's benchmark stock index, in Moscow. Russia’s Micex stock index has plunged 13.1 percent this year compared with a 5.8 percent decline for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Close

 An oil storage tank at the custody transfer facility in the Salym Petroleum Development oil fields near the Bazhenov... Read More

 An oil storage tank at the custody transfer facility in the Salym Petroleum Development oil fields near the Bazhenov shale formation in Salym, Russia, on Feb. 5, 2014. Close

 An oil storage tank at the custody transfer facility in the Salym Petroleum Development oil fields near the Bazhenov shale formation in Salym, Russia, on Feb. 5, 2014.

 Sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union are pushing Russia toward a recession as the intensity of their economic penalties increases after the annexation of Crimea earlier this month.

 Banks including state-run VTB Capital say the world’s ninth-biggest economy will shrink for at least two quarters as penalties for annexing Crimea rattle markets, curb investment and raise the cost of borrowing. Sanctions that have so far focused on individuals via visa bans and asset freezes may be expanded to target specific areas of the economy.

 President Vladimir Putin sent his popularity surging to a five-year high by making Crimea a part of Russia again after 60 years and says he won’t be swayed by foreign retaliation. Even so, the costs of the decision are starting to unfold, with Russian stocks this year’s worst performers and the economy set to suffer more than the West, said Mircea Geoana, Romania’s government representative for diplomacy and economic projects.

 It's Personal: The Individuals Targeted by U.S. Sanctions

 “We’re witnessing the start of a new geopolitical and economic Cold War and I think it will take at least two to three years to establish some sort of equilibrium,” he said. “The ones who’ll pay the bill for this aggression, no matter how popular and patriotic it looks, will be the Russian people because there’s a huge difference between the economic force of the EU and the U.S. and that of Russia.”

 Stocks, Ruble

 Russia’s Micex stock index has plunged 13.7 percent this year compared with a 5 percent decline for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. It was down 0.7 percent at 6:50 p.m. in Moscow.

 The ruble is the second-worst performer against the dollar behind Argentina among 24 developing-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg, weakening 9 percent. It rose 0.4 percent today.

 Full Coverage of the Crisis in Ukraine:

 Investors pulled out $5.5 billion from Russian equities and bonds this year through March 20, already approaching the total outflow of $6.1 billion for the whole 2013, according to data compiled by EPFR Global, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm tracking fund flows.

 After the U.S. expanded sanctions March 20 to include businessmen linked to Putin, such as billionaires Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings cut their outlook on Russia’s credit grade to negative from stable, suggesting a downgrade is most likely next.

 The two companies, which said Western banks are becoming reluctant to lend to Russia, rate the world’s biggest energy exporter at BBB, the second-lowest investment grade and on par with Brazil and South Africa.

 Crisis Signs

 A Snapshot of Ukraine's Past and Future

 Even before the standoff with the West, the worst since the Cold War, Russia’s economy was facing the weakest growth since a 2009 recession as consumer demand failed to make up for sagging investment. The current situation in the economy “bears clear signs of a crisis,” Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Belyakov said March 17 after the first European Union and U.S. sanctions.

 Russia will probably dip into a recession in the second and third quarters of this year as “domestic demand is set to halt on the uncertainty shock and tighter financial conditions,” according to Moscow-based VTB.

 Russia’s central bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points after the armed takeover of Crimea triggered a rout in the ruble. Putin completed his annexation of the Black Sea peninsula March 21.

 ‘Mosquito Bite’

 Russia may shun foreign debt markets in 2014 because of higher borrowing costs, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. He expressed frustration at disruptions to MasterCard Inc. and Visa services for cards issued by banks on or linked to persons on the U.S. sanctions list.

 “Some people say these sanctions won’t affect Russia’s financial system but they already are,” he said March 21.

 Even so, the measures may not have much effect on the individuals targeted or on Putin’s thinking on Ukraine, whose government accuses the Russian leader of stirring up unrest elsewhere and planning an invasion of the country’s east.

 The sanctions represent “a mosquito bite” because most officials on the list aren’t permitted to travel abroad privately and have most of their business in Russia, said Konstantin Kostin, a Kremlin adviser who heads the Civil Society Development Fund. Government members featured in a new EU list March 21 include Putin aides Sergei Glazyev and Vladislav Surkov.

 Putin, meanwhile, would require stiffer penalties to budge, according to Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Republican-leaning Heritage Foundation in Washington.

 No Retreat

 “You’re dealing with an individual who won’t be easily intimidated,” he said March 21 by phone from Washington. “The West is escalating sanctions but Russia isn’t going to back off on Crimea and Ukraine that easily. It will take more than pinpointed individual sanctions to start rolling this back.”

 Russia imposed retaliatory sanctions on 13 Canadians today, banning them from entering the country. In a possible escalation, U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized potential future penalties on Russian industries, including financial services, energy, metals and mining, defense and engineering.

 The EU, which relies on Russia for a third of its energy imports, has struggled to find ways of punishing Putin because trade steps risk damaging Europe’s economy. Banking curbs would hurt Britain, an arms embargo would bar France from selling Mistral-class helicopter carriers to the Kremlin and cutbacks in gas purchases would harm a swathe of EU nations.

 Threat Effect

 The declines in Russian stocks, weakness in the ruble and the risk of downgrades to the country’s credit rating show threats of future sanctions can erode business confidence and hurt the economy, according to Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy.

 “Investors and ratings agencies are basing their views not on what’s happened with sanctions so far but on what may happen,” he said March 21 by phone from Brussels.

 The benchmark Micex stock index has lost 13 percent and the ruble is down 8.4 percent against the dollar since Nov. 21, the start of protests that ousted Kremlin-backed former President Viktor Yanukovych and triggered the crisis.

 Capital outflows from Russia may reach $70 billion in the first quarter, more than the $63 billion recorded in the whole of 2013, London-based Capital Economics Ltd. said last week in a report.

 Outflows of $100 billion this year would risk zero growth, Herman Gref, chief executive officer of Russia’s biggest lender, OAO Sberbank, said today.

 To contact the reporters on this story: Andra Timu in Bucharest at atimu@bloomberg.net; Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net; Olga Tanas in Moscow at otanas@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Andrew Langley ||||| Visa and MasterCard suspended services for Bank Rossiya, whose main branch in St. Petersburg is shown here. (Photo: Elena Ignatyeva, AP)

 MOSCOW — Sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle won't affect him, experts here say, but average Russians believe it is they who will feel the brunt of the economic penalties.

 The United States and Europe have issued travel bans and asset freezes against 20 Russian officials and businessmen to deter the Kremlin from further aggression against Ukraine, where Russian troops have effectively taken over the province of Crimea.

 "The position of officialdom and business is that these sanctions aren't hitting Russia very hard, while harsher economic sanctions are problematic for Western countries themselves," said Dmitry Danilov, head of the European security department at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

 The effects of the sanctions were felt in Moscow on Friday, where several banks said that Visa and MasterCard stopped providing services for payment transactions.

 Visa and MasterCard suspended services on Friday for Bank Rossiya, whose shareholder, Yuri Kovalchuk, is widely reputed to be close to Putin. Both Kovalchuk and Bank Rossiya fell under the sanctions imposed Thursday.

 The bank, ranked the 17th largest in Russia, provides services for 24,000 corporate clients and 470,000 private clients. Russia's SMP Bank, whose shareholders, Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, had been sanctioned, also said that Visa and MasterCard had suspended services for the bank's card holders.

 The credit card companies resumed working with SMP on Saturday, Interfax quoted a bank representative as saying, because the sanctions had been imposed on shareholders but not on the bank itself.

 However, credit card services at Bank Rossiya continued to be blocked. Ordinary Russians feared the fallout from the sanctions would trickle down to them.

 "These sanctions are taking us back to central planning," said entrepreneur Sonya Sokolova, who heads the Zvuki.ru online music portal. "No one can punish Russia as much as it punishes itself."

 Others who have grown accustomed to taking advantage of Western payment transaction services such as Visa and MasterCard fear that the problems could spread to other banks, with entrepreneurs asking who could be next after Kovalchuk and the Rotenberg brothers.

 The problem will affect mostly regular workers, says Sokolova. Employees are increasingly asking that their salaries be transferred in cash, local entrepreneurs told Moscow news media.

 Russia's RTS index fell 4.5% on Friday on news of the new round of Washington sanctions. But what Russians feared more than the sanctions themselves were the Russian government's response to the penalties.

 A bill was introduced into Russia's parliament on Friday to ban transaction services that were based outside of Russia. While the draft was part of a bid to develop Russia's own transaction services, in effect it would mean that credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard would not service clients in Russia.

 "The fact that our banks use infrastructure that they cannot control carries a real threat for national security and makes it possible for Russian banks to be cut off from international payment services, in the manner which we have seen today," ITAR-TASS quoted lawmaker Vladislav Reznik, who introduced the bill, as saying on Friday.

 "There is talk of creating a national payment transaction system, and what that means is that no one's deposits will be safe," said Sokolova, the entrepreneur. "Isolation will increase."

 "From the standpoint of the average population, they will blame the West for this, not Putin," Sokolova said, noting that polls indicate Putin's popularity has skyrocketed since Russia intervened in Ukraine earlier this month.

 Danilov said the current sanctions would not be very effective.

 "There is no consensus on sanction within the European Union," which has a trade turnover of nearly $400 billion with Russia that many EU countries would not want to jeopardize.

 "Given Russia's power structure, it's clear that business is oriented toward politics and they would have to adapt [to new political realities] in any case," Danilov said. "Business and officialdom are more concerned about the situation in Ukraine and their trade ties there than they are about the sanctions."

 Putin laughed off the sanctions on Friday, joking that he would have to "stay away" from the 20 sanctioned officials. He warned that Russia can sanction, too, and has issued travel bans to Moscow against Western officials. He also pledged to open an account at Bank Rossiya out of solidarity.

 Pro-Kremlin expert and adviser Sergei Markov said that average Russians would not really be affected by the sanctions.

 "In fact, they will be enthusiastic about the sanctions, because they help solve one of Russia's key problem, that the elite is seen as stealing Russia's resources and taking them abroad," Markov said.

 "These sanctions lower the dependence of Russia's business elite on the West. Washington's sanctions go in line with President Putin's policies of de-offshorization." ||||| Ukrainian tanks are transported from their base in Perevalne, outside Simferopol, Crimea, March 26, 2014.

 Ukrainian soldiers transport their tanks from their base in Perevalnoe, outside Simferopol, Crimea, March 26, 2014.

 Russian police cars drive and Ukrainian soldiers walk behind Ukrainian tanks at Perevalnoe, outside Simferopol, Crimea, March 26, 2014.

 Crimean retirees line up to get their pensions in Russian rubles inside a post office in Simferopol, Crimea, March 25, 2014.

 Ukrainian marines prepare to leave their base in Feodosia, Crimea, March 25, 2014.

 Russian sailors stand on board the ship Aleksandrovets at the port of Sevastopol, Crimea, March 25, 2014.

 Ukrainian sailors leave the Konstantin Olshansky navy ship in the bay of Donuzlav, Crimea, March 24, 2014.

 People line up to apply for Russian passports in Sevastopol, Crimea, March 24, 2014.

 A man carries a placard with currency rates at an exchange office in Sevastopol, Crimea, March 24, 2014. ◀ ▶ < ▶ || > 1/9 ... ⇱ Disable Captions Enable Captions

 Russian bank SMP showed the impact of U.S. punitive measures over Ukraine on Monday, saying around nine billion rubles [$248 million] had been withdrawn by depositors since Washington imposed sanctions against two of its shareholders last week.Washington imposed sanctions on Thursday against 20 Russians close to President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's involvement in the Ukraine crisis, including Boris Rotenberg and his older brother Arkady, the co-owners of SMP Bank.SMP CEO Dmitry Kalantyrsky told a news conference that an estimated four billion rubles had been withdrawn by individuals and five billion by organizations.On Friday, SMP said Visa and MasterCard had stopped providing services for payment transactions for its clients. On Sunday service had resumed, it said.Kalantyrsky said the stoppage of services had been an over-zealous reaction because sanctions were imposed on the shareholders, not the bank.“[The shareholders] expressed their willingness, if necessary, to support the bank with money,” Kalantyrsky said, but stressed the bank has enough liquidity.St. Petersburg-based Bank Rossiya, which was sanctioned alongside its chairman and largest shareholder Yuri Kovalchuk, said separately in a statement it had asked its clients to refrain from making foreign currency payments to accounts at the bank due to the U.S. sanctions.Kovalchuk said in a television interview on Sunday the sanctions had backfired by helping him win new clients among patriotic Russians. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that he would open an account at the bank. ||||| A detained billionaire who made a fortune as a middleman in Russia’s murky gas trade with Ukraine may hold the key for U.S. lawmakers seeking harsher sanctions against President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

 Ukrainian Dmitry Firtash, arrested in Vienna this month on an American warrant for bribery and other charges, may hand over a treasure trove of information about deals involving Russian state gas exporter OAO Gazprom (GAZP) that the U.S. would consider corrupt, said Mikhail Korchemkin, a former analyst for the Soviet Union’s Gas Ministry in Moscow and founder of Malvern, Pennsylvania-based East European Gas Analysis.

 After Putin seized Ukraine’s southern Crimea region, a U.S. Senate panel approved a bill on emergency funding for the country that would widen the scope of sanctions to include any Russian involved in “significant” corruption.

 Full Coverage of the Crisis in Ukraine:

 “This law would enable the U.S. to go after any member of Putin’s entourage,” Masha Lipman, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said by phone. “The point is to deepen the fractures within the Russian elite. The idea is to weaken Putin so he can be contained.”

 President Barack Obama last week expanded financial sanctions to 20 more Russian officials, billionaires and a bank, including brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who have joint investments with Firtash in Ukraine and Russia. The Rotenbergs’ companies received $7 billion of contracts for the Sochi Winter Olympics and are major suppliers to Gazprom.

 Photographer: Efrem Lukatsky/ Bloomberg Dmitry Firtash, Ukrainian billionaire, speaks during an interview in his office in Kiev in a Jan. 31, 2009 file photo. Close Dmitry Firtash, Ukrainian billionaire, speaks during an interview in his office in Kiev... Read More Close Open Photographer: Efrem Lukatsky/ Bloomberg Dmitry Firtash, Ukrainian billionaire, speaks during an interview in his office in Kiev in a Jan. 31, 2009 file photo.

 Most Wanted

 Firtash, 48, built his fortune as a broker of Russia’s gas sales to Ukraine, one of Gazprom’s biggest export markets. He and a partner owned half of RosUkrEnergo, which was founded in 2004 and emerged as Ukraine’s sole gas importer in 2006 to 2009, between price disputes with Russia that led to supply halts and shortages across Europe.

 Gazprom oversaw the other half of RosUkrEnergo, which Ukraine’s security service in 2005 said may be indirectly controlled by Semion Mogilevich, an organized crime suspect on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most-wanted list. Firtash has repeatedly denied any link between Mogilevich and RosUkrEnergo. A lawyer for Mogilevich, who lives in Moscow, said his client has never been in business with Firtash.

 Read About Other Individuals Targeted by U.S. Sanctions

 Still, the former U.S. ambassador in Kiev, William Taylor, said Firtash himself told him that he needed Mogilevich’s permission to get into the lucrative gas business with Gazprom, according to a secret cable to the Central Intelligence Agency that was published by Wikileaks and dated Dec. 10, 2008.

 ‘Personal Interests’

 “Firtash may know whether Ukrainian officials and managers of Gazprom and Gazprombank had personal economic interests in these transactions,” former Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Ryazanov said in an interview in Moscow.

 Gazprom’s spokesman, Sergei Kupriyanov, said the company sees no negative consequences from the possible extradition of Firtash to the U.S.

 Graphic: Mapping the Conflict in Ukraine

 For years, Gazprom sold gas to Ukraine at lower than western European rates as a gesture of goodwill to Russia’s fellow former Soviet state. The RosUkrEnergo deals allowed the company to sell cheap gas from Turkmenistan at much higher rates in Europe, which helped subsidize Ukraine’s domestic market. Gazprom investors criticized the scheme at the time for introducing an unnecessary player in transactions that the Russian monopoly could perform itself.

 ‘Personal Bank’

 The twin pillars of Putin’s economy, Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer, and state oil champion OAO Rosneft (ROSN), are already both potential targets of sanctions. Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin may be among officials banned from the European Union, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported March 15, a move the bloc has yet to carry out in two rounds of sanctions.

 Obama signed a separate order on March 20 authorizing potential penalties on Russian industries such as energy, finance, mining and defense. Bank Rossiya, a St. Petersburg lender founded by three Putin associates in 1990, was put on the sanctions list last for being, as the Treasury Department said, “the personal bank for senior officials.”

 Graphic: What Crimea Is Costing Putin

 Leaders of the U.S., the European Union, China, Japan and others meet in The Hague today, with Obama seeking to mobilize opposition to Putin’s incursion into Crimea.

 Russian anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who’s under house arrest in Moscow, said March 20 that Miller and Sechin, as longtime Putin allies with key positions in his power structure, should be included in any regime of penalties put together by the West.

 ‘Loyal Elite’

 “Western nations could deliver a serious blow to the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by the Kremlin’s cronies who shuttle between Russia and the West,” Navalny said in a commentary in the New York Times. (NYT) “This means freezing the oligarchs’ financial assets and seizing their property.”

 Miller, 52, and Sechin, 53, both worked for Putin in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office in the 1990s. Miller, CEO since 2001, declined to comment on the possibility of his inclusion on the blacklist, according to Kupriyanov. Sechin, a former deputy premier who’s overseen Rosneft since 2004 as chairman, then CEO, denounced all Western “threats and blackmail,” according to an e-mailed comment.

 “As far as the loyal elite is concerned, sanctions have always led to a consolidation of forces to counter pressure from outside,” said Sechin, who spearheaded Rosneft’s takeover of Yukos Oil Co. to become Russia’s largest crude producer after the 2003 jailing of Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

 Excluding Miller and Sechin leaves “headroom for additional sanctions,” said Cliff Kupchan, an analyst at Eurasia Group in New York. So far, the U.S. sanctions have been “targeted,” unlike the sweeping penalties against Iran over its nuclear program that are designed to sever “vast swathes of the economy” from the West, Kupchan said in a research note.

 FBI Probe

 The U.S. law, if passed by both houses of Congress and signed by Obama, would authorize the president to impose sanctions against Russian officials or their associates or family members involved in the “expropriation of private or public assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, bribery, or the facilitation or transfer of the proceeds of corruption to foreign jurisdictions.”

 Firtash, worth $2.3 billion according to Kiev-based Korrespondent magazine, was arrested March 14 on suspicion of bribery and criminal conspiracy, according to an Austrian police statement. The charges are the result of several years of investigation by the FBI and aren’t “related to recent events in Ukraine,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.

 Firtash, who owns titanium assets in Crimea, paid a record 125 million-euro ($172 million) bail on March 20 to win release during extradition hearings. He criticized his arrest as a “purely political” act.

 Boeing, India

 The case involves allegations of bribes paid by a Swiss company controlled by Firtash, Bothli, to obtain licenses to mine titanium ore in Andhra Pradesh with a state-run Indian company and build plants to produce titanium sponge with Boeing Co. (BA) in India, according to two people familiar with the investigation who asked not to be identified.

 Boeing agreed in 2006 to conduct a feasibility study into the project with Bothli and then decided not to pursue it, the Chicago-based company said in an e-mailed response to questions. Firtash’s point man for the project, Suren Gevorgyan, said Bothli never paid a bribe to get permits because India was eager to receive Boeing’s planned investment.

 The charges seem designed to get Firtash inside the U.S. and persuade him to cut a deal for information about Gazprom and people close to Putin, Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said by phone.

 ‘Severe Consequences’

 “Firtash was very deeply involved in the fine print of Gazprom’s dealings in Ukraine, in the financial transactions,” said Korchemkin of East European Gas Analysis. “If Firtash strikes a deal with the FBI and starts to give testimony it could threaten severe consequences for Gazprom managers and the company itself.”

 Any disclosure that shows Gazprom managers causing losses to U.S. investors, who hold more than half of the company’s depositary receipts, could lead to sanctions, major fines and lawsuits, Korchemkin said. Putin’s political protege, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, was Gazprom’s chairman in 2002-2008. Medvedev’s spokeswoman, Natalia Timakova, declined to comment on the possibility that the premier may face sanctions.

 “These sanctions are designed to touch important people close to the Kremlin and have a geopolitical impact rather than a direct effect on earnings at other banks,” said Hadrien de Belle, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a New-York based financial services company. “This has to be perceived as going after the financial conduits for the wealth of the targets.”

 Abramovich, Usmanov

 Two other billionaires close to Putin, former Gazprom adviser Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich, both of whom are shareholders of London soccer clubs, are prime candidates for sanctions, said Navalny, the opposition leader.

 The bulk of Abramovich’s $14 billion wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, came from the sale of OAO Sibneft, the oil company he acquired for about $100 million in 1996. He sold it to Gazprom for $13 billion a decade later. Abramovich’s spokesman, John Mann, declined to comment.

 Usmanov, 60, is Russia’s richest man, with a fortune of $17.4 billion. He cut his U.S. stock holdings this year, selling his shares in Apple Inc. and reducing his interest in Facebook Inc., according to Ivan Streshinskiy, head of Usmanov’s asset-management company USM Advisors LLC.

 Sanctions are “counterproductive” for all parties involved because the global economy is interconnected, Usmanov told reporters in Moscow on March 20. He didn’t respond to requests for comment sent to his representatives.

 “Everyone has to decide whether they want to bring back their assets to Russia and stay within sealed borders,” Lipman of the Carnegie Center said. “This is a bleak prospect for many people.”

 To contact the reporters on this story: Irina Reznik in Moscow at ireznik@bloomberg.net; Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at htromm@bloomberg.net; Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Brad Cook ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption David Cameron: "There's not going to be a G8 summit this year in Russia"

 The G8 summit will not take place in Russia this year, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

 Speaking in the Netherlands, Mr Cameron said it was "absolutely clear" the planned June meeting of world leaders in the Russian resort of Sochi would not happen owing to events in Ukraine.

 The EU and US have imposed sanctions on Russian officials after Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

 Moscow has also been warned of further action if it does not change course.

 The announcement that the Sochi meeting had been effectively cancelled came after Russian troops seized control of the last major military base in Crimea.

 Mr Cameron, US President Barack Obama and other G8 leaders are attending a nuclear co-operation summit in The Hague, to which Russian President Vladimir Putin was not invited.

 'Illegal annexation'

 "We should be clear there's not going to be a G8 summit in Russia," Mr Cameron said, urging Russia to "change course".

 The G7 leaders plus EU representatives issued a declaration after their meeting in The Hague noting that "international law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state's territory through coercion or force".

 Image copyright AFP

 "To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built," they said.

 "We condemn the illegal referendum held in Crimea in violation of Ukraine's constitution. We also strongly condemn Russia's illegal attempt to annex Crimea in contravention of international law and specific international obligations. We do not recognise either."

 Russia's actions would have "significant consequences", they continued.

 "We remain ready to intensify actions including coordinated sectoral sanctions that will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy, if Russia continues to escalate this situation.

 "Russia has a clear choice to make. Diplomatic avenues to de-escalate the situation remain open, and we encourage the Russian government to take them."

 UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said there was an increasing recognition that European leaders wanted to stop relying so heavily on Russian oil and gas.

 The G7 had to be prepared to take more far-reaching measures in response to the developments, he said.

 The UK and other G8 nations suspended their preparations for the Sochi summit last month as the crisis in Ukraine intensified and hinted that they could meet without Russia.

 Several G8 members have also called for Russia's membership of the powerful body to be suspended.

 The BBC's Europe correspondent Matthew Price said the end of the Sochi summit was a recognition of Russia's isolation on the global stage as a result of what it had done in Ukraine.

 The US, UK and other countries, he added, were making clear they did not want Russia "in their club" unless it reconsidered its actions in Crimea. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The other seven members of the G8 are calling off the meeting Russia was supposed to host in Sochi in June, David Cameron revealed today. Cameron, President Obama, and the other leaders of the G7 nations—which is to say the G8 minus Russia—are holding an emergency meeting at the Hague today, on the sidelines of a nuclear summit. "There's not going to be a G8 summit in Russia," Cameron said, according to the BBC. "That's absolutely clear. … Frankly, it is Russia that needs to change course." If Russia doesn't change, the nations have hinted that more sanctions could be on the way—and that could be bad news for Russia. Some banks are predicting that the sanctions already have Russia headed toward recession. The Russian bank SMP has seen $258 million withdrawn since the US sanctioned it, according to Voice of America. Ordinary Russians feel it is they, not Vladimir Putin or his inner circle, who will be hurt most, USA Today reports. But the US might have a secret weapon; Bloomberg has a fascinating piece on a Russian billionaire currently being detained on a US warrant who might fork over crucial information on Gazprom that could really hurt Putin's inner circle.


Here is a news article: Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump and congressional lawmakers signaled on Tuesday that more steps need to be taken to rein in North Korea's rapidly developing nuclear program despite the United Nations Security Council's unanimous vote to pass additional sanctions on the rogue nation.

 Trump noted the 15-0 UN vote during a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, but said they are "just another very small step, not a big deal" and suggested that he doesn't know "if it has any impact."

 Trump added that the sanctions pale in comparison to "what ultimately will have to happen" to North Korea.

 State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that the UN resolution represented "the strongest set of sanctions" so far, adding that "that's significant." Trump, she suggested, was conveying that tougher measures can still be taken because the international community is not "at the ceiling" of what can be done.

 The North Korean Foreign Ministry condemned the sanctions "in the strongest terms," calling them a "heinous provocation aimed at depriving the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name) of its legitimate right for self-defense."

 "The 'resolution' was fabricated by the US employing all sorts of despicable and vicious means and methods," the statement said, according to a report in North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

 That statement followed a similar message from Monday, in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported Pyongyang would respond to any sanctions by inflicting upon the United States "the greatest pain and suffering it had ever gone through in its entire history," KCNA reported.

 Frustration in the House

 Trump's remarks came just hours after House lawmakers from both parties expressed frustration that the US isn't exerting greater pressure on China to stop North Korea's march toward developing nuclear weapons capable of striking the continental United States.

 "We don't threaten China, even a little bit, with country sanctions because that would be difficult, politically," to do, said Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat. China, North Korea's closest diplomatic ally and largest trading partner, is seen as key to solving the standoff with Pyongyang.

 The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Ed Royce of California, said he agreed with Sherman and urged more sanctions against Chinese banks that do business with North Korea. "It's been a long, long time of waiting for China to comply with the sanctions we pass and, frankly, the sanctions the United Nations passes."

 Meanwhile, Democrats charged that Trump is exacerbating the increasingly tense standoff with North Korea with his belligerent comments and tweets. "He talked about the response of the United States of 'fire and fury,'" said Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia. "Frankly, the policy looks more like fecklessness and failure."

 JUST WATCHED Critics: N. Korea sanctions draft watered down Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Critics: N. Korea sanctions draft watered down 03:01

 The lawmakers aired their frustration as US officials outlined ways in which China and Russia are failing to do everything they can to rein in North Korea, even as the nuclear threat from the rogue regime grows more intense.

 China's leaders are looking the other way as DPRK uses its banking system and front companies to do business, while Russian companies continue to provide support to Pyongyang, said Marshall Billingslea, assistant secretary in the Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

 "It is essential that the international community work together to increase economic pressure on North Korea," Billingslea told the committee. But "DPRK bank representatives operate in Russia in flagrant disregard of the very resolutions adopted by Russia at the UN," he said in prepared remarks.

 And while China accounts for 90% of North Korean exports, Billingslea said he "cannot assure the committee today that we have seen sufficient evidence of China's willingness to truly shut down North Korean revenue flows, expunge the North Korean illicit actors from its banking system, and expel the North Korean middlemen and brokers who are establishing webs of front companies."

 Pressure on China

 Both Billingslea and Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that the administration is pushing China to act. "We are determined to induce the Chinese to help solve this problem," Billingslea said.

 Thornton added that "we're certainly looking at every option to put pressure on China." But when asked about cutting off trade, she offered a caution. "That would be a huge step and there are lots of ramifications on that."

 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with China's most senior diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi Tuesday, where the subject undoubtedly came up. Neither official took questions from reporters during a photo op at the State Department. Meanwhile, Ambassador Joseph Yun, who serves as special representative for North Korea Policy at the State Department, is in Moscow for meetings on North Korea.

 Billingslea said the US is "capable of tracking North Korea's trade on banned goods... and we will act even if China does not." He said that the US has recently caught North Korea trying to disguise the origin of ships it's using -- and added that cracking down on North Korean ship traffic will be crucial to enforcing sanctions.

 These vessels have been spotted entering North Korean ports with their transponders turned off in violation of international law, Billingslea said. They have then been seen loading cargo such as coal, sailing to a Russian port where the coal is offloaded and then put on a vessel bound for China.

 JUST WATCHED Why does North Korea keep launching ICBMs? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why does North Korea keep launching ICBMs? 01:14

 Thornton said greater international cooperation in enforcing existing sanctions and applying pressure will be crucial to Tillerson's "peaceful pressure" campaign to isolate North Korea diplomatically and economically to force them to the negotiating table.

 It's already yielding some successes, she said, pointing to the Philippines announcing it will cut all trade, and other countries, including Mexico and Egypt, taking steps to scale back links to Pyongyang. And she pointed to new UN sanctions, pushed through by the US.

 On August 5, the US drafted a UN resolution that embargoed all imports of North Korean coal, iron, lead and seafood and required nations to cap employment of DPRK workers. On Monday, a second US-drafted UN resolution targeted North Korea's textile exports, further cut its ability to send workers overseas, curbed refined petroleum products going to Pyongyang and banned all joint ventures with it.

 Tools in the toolbox

 US officials have also hinted that they are ready to do more. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking Tuesday at CNBC's Institutional Investor Conference Delivering Alpha, said that the US has "sent a message that anybody that wanted to trade with North Korea, we consider them not trading with us. We can put economic sanctions to stop people trading."

 Citing the latest UN resolution, he said he was "very pleased with the resolution that passed. This is some of the strongest items. We now have more tools in our toolbox and we will continue to use them to put additional sanctions on North Korea until they stop this behavior."

 In the meantime, Thornton said the US remains ready to counter any threat with force, even as it pushes for a diplomatic solution.

 "Our military, together with our allies, remains prepared to respond immediately and resolutely to any attack or threat of attack," Thornton said. She added that "we've been clear we're not seeking regime change or collapse in North Korea, or reunification."

 JUST WATCHED McCain open to nuclear weapons for South Korea Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH McCain open to nuclear weapons for South Korea 02:02

 "There should be no doubt about our resolve to defend our allies and our homeland," Thornton said, adding that "we are ready to respond if necessary. Meanwhile, we remain open to diplomacy, but the DPRK must show it is ready for serious engagement. We have not seen any such indication."

 Indeed, the pace of North Korea's missile testing has increased dramatically. This year alone, it has conducted 16 missile tests, including two intercontinental ballistic missiles, which could reach the US.

 On August 28, it launched a missile directly over Japan, endangering Japanese airspace and "and clearly was meant as a blatant threat to the people of Japan, and to us and our armed forces stationed there," said Billingslea.

 And on September 3, the DPRK conducted its sixth test of a nuclear device -- the most powerful its ever detonated -- marking "an unacceptable provocation," Billingslea said. ||||| SEOUL, South Korea — The last time South Korea is known to have plotted to assassinate the North Korean leadership, nothing went as planned.

 In the late 1960s, after North Korean commandoes tried to ransack the presidential palace in Seoul, South Korea secretly trained misfits plucked from prison or off the streets to sneak into North Korea and slit the throat of its leader, Kim Il-sung. When the mission was aborted, the men mutinied.

 They killed their trainers and fought their way into Seoul before blowing themselves up, an episode the government concealed for decades.

 Now, as Mr. Kim’s grandson, Kim Jong-un, accelerates his nuclear missile program, South Korea is again targeting the North’s leadership. A day after North Korea conducted its sixth — and by far most powerful — nuclear test this month, the South Korean defense minister, Song Young-moo, told lawmakers in Seoul that a special forces brigade defense officials described as a “decapitation unit” would be established by the end of the year. ||||| South Korea is forming a hit squad to take out North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

 Following North Korea’s successful test of its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb earlier this month, the South Korean military has announced it’s creating an assassination unit called the Spartan 3000 to carry out night raids in North Korea. Once in the North, the group could be tasked to kill the leadership — primarily Kim. It could go in early and preempt a North Korean attack on the South, or fight in the middle of a war.

 South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo told lawmakers of the government’s intention to build the “decapitation unit” on September 4, the day after the recent nuclear test. The administration wants the team ready by the end of the year.

 The unit is central to a longstanding plan to fight North Korea if necessary — called “Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation.” In September 2016, the North tested its fifth nuclear weapon, which at that point was the largest bomb it had detonated. Two days later, the South Korean military noted it had the option to kill North Korean leadership, including Kim.

 South Korea’s previous president, the hawkish Park Geun-hye, planned to have the unit ready by 2019. But it appears the administration of the dovish Moon Jae-in wants it ready to go much sooner — likely because Moon needs to show he’s pushing back on a more aggressive North.

 “I think this may be more in response to domestic pressure on the Moon administration to reintroduce US tactical nuclear weapons than an escalation with North Korea,” Troy Stangarone, an expert at the Korea Economic Institute, told me in an interview. Last week, Song floated that idea in front of political leaders, but Moon has repeatedly said he doesn’t want those weapons in South Korea.

 “This has been getting quite a bit of play over the last few days, so [the administration] need[s] to be seen as taking strong steps to defend South Korea in the absence of a nuclear option,” Stangarone continued. “This is about deterrence.”

 The announcement seems to have the approval of former South Korean military leaders. “The best deterrence we can have, next to having our own nukes, is to make Kim Jong Un fear for his life,” Shin Won-sik, a South Korean three-star general who retired in 2015, told the Times.

 The Spartan 3000 will be a modern version of a ragtag assassination team the South Koreans created in the 1960s. Back then, the South Korean military secretly trained prisoners and others to go into North Korea and kill then-leader Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather.

 But the new unit is officially recognized by the Moon government. And it’s not the only military moves this administration has made in recent days.

 South Korea is preparing for an unlikely war

 “We cannot rely only on our ally for our security,” Moon said in a nationally televised speech on August 15, alluding to the United States. “When it comes to matters related to the Korean Peninsula, our country has to take the initiative in resolving them.”

 And take the initiative he has. On September 5, Moon told Trump that South Korea wants to build a nuclear submarine. Seoul also wants to increase the payload on its missiles so they can do more damage, and has temporarily deployed the last four THAAD missile defense systems that it bought from the US. And Moon plans to buy more military equipment from the United States now that President Donald Trump has approved the sales.

 The New York Times also reports that South Korea has three ongoing war plans: “Kill Chain,” in which South Korea would preemptively launch missiles at North Korea if it detected Pyongyang was about to shoot projectiles of its own at the South; “Korea Air and Missile Defense,” which aims to take out any rockets shot by North Korea’s artillery force, which is the largest in the world; and “Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation,” where the goal is to destroy the area in Pyongyang Kim hides in to avoid assassination.

 South Korea is naturally worried about what North Korea can do. In case of a war, South Korea would be one of Pyongyang’s first targets. Seoul, South Korea’s capital with a metro area that hosts around half of the country’s 50 million people, is only about 35 miles from the inter-Korean border. That’s near where around 70 percent of North Korea’s ground forces are stationed.

 One war game convened by the Atlantic back in 2005 predicted that a North Korean attack would kill 100,000 people in Seoul in the first few days alone. Others put the estimate even higher. A war game mentioned by the National Interest predicted Seoul could “be hit by over half-a-million shells in under an hour.”

 Critics may still see Moon as a dove on North Korea. But that description doesn’t seem to fit after some of these latest militaristic moves — which Moon wants to do to stave off a North Korean attack. |||||
A summary of this is?

– South Korea has taken the unusual step of publicly speaking about plans to assassinate Kim Jong Un and other North Korean leaders in the event of conflict. After North Korea's latest nuclear test, South Korean Defense Minister Song Young Moo told lawmakers that he was speeding up the creation of a "decapitation unit" capable of crossing the border for nighttime missions against North Korean facilities and its "wartime command," the New York Times reports. Officials say the special forces unit, which will apparently be comprised of members of the "Spartan 3000" unit, will be capable of striking anywhere in the Korean Peninsula within 24 hours. Song has said he wants to have the unit ready by the end of the year. The creation of the unit is part of South Korea's "Massive Punishment and Retaliation" plan for possible war with the North, Vox reports. Analysts say that by disclosing facts about the "decapitation unit," Seoul appears to want to make Pyongyang nervous enough to think twice about its nuclear program and return to the negotiating table. "The best deterrence we can have, next to having our own nukes, is to make Kim Jong Un fear for his life," says retired Gen. Shin Won Sik, formerly the South Korean military's chief strategist. President Trump, meanwhile, said Tuesday that tough new sanctions are "no big deal" compared to "what ultimately will have to happen" to North Korea, CNN reports.


Article:

There is an airline that does not frown on its customers trying to join the mile high club. In fact, it offers private flights for the express purpose of allowing passengers to have sex in the air.

 That airline is Flamingo Air, and it is located in—of all places—Cincinnati, Ohio.

 As you might expect, the decision to start advertising the chance to join the mile high club began with a bet. President and CEO David MacDonald, who introduces himself as “MacDonald: like ‘Old MacDonald had a farm,’” had owned a large security firm. He sold the company to “go play with airplanes,” and as he explains over a phone call, you’re not in the aviation business very long before the topic of romance comes up. As he sat with a group of buddies discussing the mile high club, his entrepreneurial instincts kicked in.

 “I could sell that!” he told the group. As they all lived on the edge of the Bible Belt in Ohio, his friends protested that the area was too conservative. But MacDonald would not be talked down.

 That was 20 years ago, and MacDonald and Flamingo Air have now helped thousands of couples in straightlaced Ohio join the mile high club. Far from succeeding in spite of the location, MacDonald believes the reason why he has operated “romantic flights” all these years, while other mile high club airlines have come and gone, is that he marketed them with a very Ohioan sensibility.

 ***

 There’s nothing too complicated about running a mile high club airline. For $495, a couple gets a private, hour-long flight. A Flamingo Air pilot sits up front wearing headphones (“He’s busy flying the plane,” MacDonald assures us), while the couple enjoys the back of the plane, where the center row of seats has been removed and replaced with a pile of cushions.

 Flamingo Air operates an average of three romantic flights per week, which makes it a small piece of MacDonald’s business. Flamingo Air originally offered regional charter service, but when those flights became uneconomical, MacDonald switched to offering sightseeing tours and romantic flights. Flamingo Air now also has a flight school and trains aircraft dispatchers and professional drone operators. MacDonald can sound like an ordinary, if unusually cheery, aviation CEO, talking about the potential of drones to deliver cargo and explaining that aircraft dispatchers are the people who plan the details of commercial flights. Business seems good.

 But romantic flights are what David MacDonald is known for, and they’re a hell of a marketing opportunity. When MacDonald talks about Flamingo Air, he does so with the cadence of someone who has told his story to friends and reporters countless times. “This lends itself so well to publicity,” MacDonald tells us, beaming through the phone. “We were even on Letterman!”

 Priceonomics first reported on MacDonald and Flamingo Air in 2013, when Flamingo Air was the only airline in the United States (and one of the only in the world) to offer a chance to join the mile high club. (At least with permission.) Many airlines had tried and failed.

 In MacDonald’s opinion, the reason the others failed was that “they all tried to sell sex, not the sizzle. They all came at it from the mile high club angle, and it didn’t work. You’ve gotta think romance, not sex.”

 This is the surprising secret of mile high club airlines: it has to be marketed as a romantic adventure, not a sultry fantasy. Flamingo Air does not use the term “mile high club” on its website. It describes its flights as “romantic flights” or “flights of fancy.” Challenging our expectation that men would clamor for this, MacDonald says that it is almost always women who calls to book a flight, and they “take it very seriously, and they’re all about the romance.”

 Every flight of fancy includes chocolates and champagne. On Valentine’s Day, demand skyrockets. Flamingo Air has done several weddings in the air (“They weren’t consummated,” MacDonald adds hurriedly. “The priest was in the airplane!”) and 60th anniversaries (“Yes they did, to answer your question!”).

 Whether it’s because Flamingo is located in Cincinnati, or because we overestimate the “sex sells” mantra, MacDonald has found that the key to selling an experience associated with slipping into a tiny lavatory has been to make it classy. Sure, he and the other pilots take a high heel to the back of the head now and again. But their customers “show up and you think they came from the Young Republicans Club,” MacDonald says. “Very straightlaced.”

 Today, in 2016, Flamingo Air has a competitor: Love Cloud in Las Vegas also offers the chance to enter the mile high club.

 Unlike MacDonald, Love Cloud founder Andy Johnson calls a spade a spade. He uses the term “mile high club” on his website, and his slogan is “What happens over Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

 This is the mile high club airline one would imagine: located in Vegas, and attracting customers from Europe, China, Australia, and all over Europe. And yet, much of Johnson’s experience has mirrored MacDonald’s, teaching him to prioritize romance.

 Over the phone, Johnson explains that he expected lots of wealthy men to show up with escorts. But that didn’t happen. Instead, like MacDonald, he got “real couples looking to make an experience they’ve talked about and joked about.” Johnson says that it’s usually women who call to book a flight, and that his customers are not red-blooded twentysomethings but middle aged and elderly couples. He’s done 25th, 30th, and even 50th wedding anniversaries.

 According to Johnson, “What they all say is: ‘We’ll never forget this.’ It’s a bucket list item.”

 Both Johnson and MacDonald have also been surprised to have couples who don’t join the club. One husband and wife who paid for a Flamingo Air flight arrived with a large picnic basket and asked the crew if they could remove the cushions from the back of the plane. “This couple had eight children and just wanted an hour alone without the kids!” MacDonald recalls with a chuckle. “So we took off and they had a nice, quiet time. They were as happy as you could be.”

 A mile high club airline is the kind of thing that makes you say “only in Vegas.” Except it’s also in Ohio.

 Our next article explores why some athletes say they use cannabis for athletic purposes. To get notified when we post it → join our email list.

 An earlier version of this article was published on August 14, 2013.

 Want to write for Priceonomics? We are looking for freelance contributors. ||||| A private Ohio airline is serving up sex on an airplane, luring customers who yearn to join the “Mile High Club.”

 The “romantic” $425 package includes 60 minutes in heaven aboard a private plane, champagne, chocolate and a “very discreet pilot,” according to the company’s website.

 The Cincinnati-based Flamingo Air says it’s the only one in the country that allows customers to do the dirty deed.

 “I have had a high heel in my ear once, been shot in the back of the head with a champagne cork, and thank God we wear headsets,” Dave MacDonald, pilot and co-owner of the business told WCPO-TV.

 The sexy idea was conjured during a dare between pilot buddies 21 years ago, MacDonald told the station. As many as eight of the fornication flights have been booked in a single day, co-owner Sharon McGee said.

 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| My boyfriend and I* are getting busy, when I suddenly feel the Earth move. Only this time, the Earth is thousands of feet below us.

 Our tryst is cut short by some turbulence, and I’m brought back to our less-than-romantic surroundings in the six-passenger cabin of Amelia, a rickety Piper Cherokee 6 aircraft equipped with heart-shaped pillows, plastic champagne flutes, and a polyester blanket. I try to get back in the mood, but I can’t help thinking of what lies behind the thin white curtain just three feet from us: our pilot, Kent Dobbins, an affable, gray-haired man who seems like the “blushing” type.

 Checking the “Join Mile-High Club” box off my bucket list is supposed to be a fun way for my boyfriend and me to celebrate our anniversary. Although the process of entry might seem straightforward (find willing partner, wait for plane to rise to 5,280 feet, go for it), carrying out these steps can be tricky. The logistics of waiting for the right time—free from turbulence and vigilant flight attendants—can be frustrating in itself. Then there’s the issue of moving within a coffin-size bathroom, not to mention the mandatory (and decidedly unsexy) task of sanitizing the toilet seat. It’s probably why, according to surveys, only four percent of Americans have achieved in-flight intercourse—even though 33 percent fantasize about it.

 So when I heard about the Ohio-based Flamingo Air’s Flights of Fancy service—60 minutes in the sky, complete with champagne, chocolates, and “one very discreet pilot”—I danced an inner jig at the prospect of finally joining a league of sexual adventurers without facing the typical obstacles. While there are a handful of other private airlines offering similar membership—Erotic Airways in Australia, Mile High Flights in England, and the recently launched Love Cloud in Vegas—Flamingo Air has been letting passengers get frisky in the extra-friendly skies since 1991, servicing two couples per week since its inception. Going with the experienced option, my boyfriend and I fork over the $425 fee and fly to Cincinnati to celebrate our anniversary in truly high style.

 Captain Dobbins welcomes us aboard the 28-foot jet that will soon become our own personal love nest. Assessing the cramped interior, I quickly realize that there are several degrees of “flying private.” Whereas Kimye might charter the equivalent of the Ritz-Carlton to canoodle between the clouds, we seem to have boarded a sleazy hourly motel room specifically designed for quickies. When Amelia’s engine erupts, several concerns come to mind: Didn’t John F. Kennedy Jr. crash in one of these things? Why does the emergency handle seem so complicated? Should we be troubled that Dobbins wears glasses?

 As if I need to be reminded of his presence, the pilot’s voice booms from behind the sheet: “Once we cross the river, you can take your seat belts off, if you know what I mean. That’s the last you’ll hear from me,” he says. “Unless there’s an emergency, obviously.” The only thing to do is pop open the $4.99 bottle of André Brut and get comfortable. The glowing sunset, combined with the liquid courage of the bubbly, reminds me of our mission. We spot the river. “Let’s get naked,” I announce.

 Stripping seductively in tight quarters isn’t an option, but the teamwork required serves as effective foreplay. Or so I tell myself. Honestly, I’m less turned on than focused on the task at hand: Must achieve high-altitude orgasm.

 When my boyfriend beckons me to kneel before him, I smile coyly while searching for a comfortable position on a floor that vibrates with disconcerting intensity. I jump on him, and we start to get into the groove—until my elbow takes a massive hit from the turbulence. Then I see the river again, our signal that it’s time to wrap things up. I reapply myself as quickly as possible until I reach my goal. “Yes!” I shout, no longer caring about our chaperone in the cockpit.

 After we land, we’re greeted by owners David MacDonald and Sharon McGee, who present us with a certificate: “This is to certify that Mélanie Berliet performed the prescribed ritual and became eligible for membership in this exclusive club.”

 Some might argue that my boyfriend and I took the easy way out, bypassing the old-fashioned way of joining the Mile-High Club. That Flamingo Air cheats the system by offering a watered-down version of the fantasy that removes the illicit thrill of getting caught. But our adventure wasn’t without its hurdles, and I’ll take the freedom to howl with abandon over the rush of getting away with the act on a crowded plane any day.

 *Models pictured in photo are not the author and her boyfriend.

 Photos by Miles Aldridge / Trunk Archive |||||
What is a summary?

– Most people board a plane with the goal of going somewhere. Not on Flamingo Air, unless an orgasm counts as a destination. The Cincinnati-based airline's goal is for fliers to fulfill their dream of having sex in the sky. President and CEO David MacDonald once owned a large security firm, reports Priceonomics. Then one day 20 years ago, he was discussing the mile high club with friends and he got the idea to create an airline to help people have sex. Today, he says thousands of surprisingly "straight-laced" couples have paid for private, hour-long "flights of fancy" on Flamingo—which also offers sightseeing tours and has a flight school—for a $495 fee. They've included a couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary and a pair with eight kids who simply wanted some time to themselves. No need to maneuver around airplane seats: couples are treated to a pile of cushions where two seats should be, plus chocolates and champagne. As MacDonald puts it, "you've gotta think romance, not sex." That's why similar airlines have failed, he says—though the Love Cloud does offer "mile high club" flights in Las Vegas. "They all tried to sell sex, not the sizzle." That doesn’t mean the flight isn't awkward. The space is cramped, there's turbulence to worry about, and the pilot is only hidden behind a curtain, Melanie Berliet wrote for Maxim in 2014. "I have had a high heel in my ear once, been shot in the back of the head with a champagne cork," MacDonald, also a pilot, previously admitted, per the New York Daily News. "Thank God we wear headsets." (These celebs say they're in the mile high club.)


News article:

4 years ago

 San Antonio, TX (CNN) - Rick Perry may be giving up what he called "the greatest job in modern politics." But he's not leaving the Texas-sized political stage that launched his last run for the White House anytime soon.

 After an event Monday in San Antonio where he announced he will not be seeking a fourth term as Texas governor, Perry was asked what he plans on doing with the time off he has coming.

 "No time off man. What are you talking about? You weren't paying attention in there," Perry told CNN.

 During a 15-minute speech thanking his family and supporters, Perry vowed to stay busy around the Texas state house. He repeatedly referred to the fight over abortion rights currently consuming the capitol in Austin.

 But the Texas governor offered few clues about his political future, despite billing Monday's announcement as an unveiling of "exciting" plans.

 Perry seemed prepared to announce only that he would "pray and reflect and work to determine" what comes next.

 "Any future considerations I will announce in due time and I will arrive at that decision appropriately," Perry told the crowd.

 Perry: 2016 ‘certainly an option’

 Perry's reluctance or unwillingness to reveal any upcoming plans stunned some in the San Antonio crowd.

 "Not making future announcement. Wow," Matt Mackowiak, an Austin-based Republican strategist tweeted from the event.

 Still, the campaign-style video that played on the jumbo screen before Perry's remarks left no doubt the Texas Governor and his team believe they still have a story to tell.

 Touting the state's robust job growth over glossy film images of the stark Texan landscape and people, Perry brags in a long Lone Star drawl, "Texas is not merely strong but exceptional."

 "It's obviously on his mind," said one former Perry staffer at the San Antonio event, referring to the possibility of another run for the White House.

 "The sky's the limit," said another Perry loyalist, before conceding some Republicans would have to get over other "remembrances."

 That was a reference to the near implosion of Perry's last campaign during his disastrous November 2011 GOP debate in Michigan. The Texas Governor famously forgot the third of three departments of the federal government he would eliminate as president. "Oops," Perry finally said, after failing to jog his memory in an excruciating and unforgettable television moment.

 After that night, Perry pressed on only to stumble through the early primary and caucus states before bowing out in South Carolina.

 The Texas governor has tried at times to explain his dismal 2012 performance. He has lamented his late entry into the race.

 Still, Perry barreled into the 2012 race as an instant threat to eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney's front-runner status. Now, as governor for the next 18 months, Perry would still have access to a potent donor base.

 Perry acknowledged he is keeping an eye on 2016 in an interview on Fox News Sunday. "Certainly, that's an option out there," Perry told Fox News.

 In deciding against a fourth bid for governor, Perry has now paved the way for Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott to run for and likely win the state's Republican gubernatorial nomination. State Senator Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, who last month filibustered a bill to restrict abortion rights in Texas, is frequently mentioned as a potential Democratic contender.

 Several GOP strategists in the room at Perry's San Antonio event expect Abbott to make a formal announcement as soon as this weekend. Perry's decision to omit specific mentions about any future plans may have been out of courtesy to Abbott.

 There were other notable faces in the crowd. Lee Majors, the star of the 70's era action show, "The Six Million Dollar Man," was also in attendance.

 The sight of the actor who played the fictional astronaut, given super human strength after a near-death experience, invited some observers to wonder whether the same can be done for Perry's political career.

 It's Perry's life that has been the stuff of Hollywood. Raised in the tiny town of Paint Creek, Perry rose to become the state's longest-serving governor. He assumed the governorship in December 2000, when George W. Bush stepped down to become president. Perry was elected to full four-year terms in 2002, 2006 and 2010.

 "It's been an improbable journey," Perry told the crowd. ||||| Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history who famously muttered "oops" after forgetting during a 2011 presidential debate the third of three federal departments he'd pledged to close, announced Monday he won't seek re-election next year to a fourth full term.

 FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2003, file photo Texas Gov. Rick Perry, with his wife Anita, walks under the Ross Volunteers saber arch during Perry's inauguration in Austin, Texas. Perry announced Monday, July... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, makes a campaign stop at the Iowa 80 Group in Walcott, Iowa. Perry announced Monday, July 8, 2013, that... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this March 13, 2000 file photo, Texas Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, right, shares a laugh with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, during a news conference in Austin, Texas. Perry announced Monday, July... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidates former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry speak during a Republican presidential debate in Las... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this April 8, 2004 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry makes a face and flexes his muscles as he talks with students at Fox Tech High School following the announcement of his school finance proposal... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidates Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speak during a Republican Presidential Debate at Oakland University in Auburn... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2011 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks at The Response, a call to prayer for a nation in crisis, in Houston. Perry attended the daylong prayer rally despite criticism that... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2000, file photo newly-sworn-in Governor of Texas Rick Perry acknowledges applause in the Senate Chamber of the Texas Capitol where he took the oath of office in the company of... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this June 27, 2013 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks in Grapevine, Texas. Perry announced Monday, July 8, 2013, that he would not seek re-election as Texas governor next year. (AP Photo/Tony... (Associated Press)

 A staunch Christian conservative, proven job-creator and fierce defender of states' rights, Perry has been in office nearly 13 years, making him the nation's longest-sitting current governor.

 The 63-year-old ruled out another try for the White House in 2016, but Perry's decision not to run again for his current post likely clears the way for longtime Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to make a serious run at the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the March primary.

 Perry had initially promised to divulge his future plans by July 1 but was forced to push that back following a rare political victory by state Democrats _ a filibuster of abortion restrictions during the first 30-day special legislative session.

 He called 30 more days of work to finish the job and suggested that would further delay his announcement, but then he distributed an email to a small group of friends and supporters last week promising he'd reveal "exciting future plans" Monday in San Antonio. The Caterpillar dealership he announced his plans at is the same place he announced his re-election bid for a third term in 2009.

 Perry had never lost an election during his 27-year political career and became a near-instant front-runner when he strapped on his signature cowboy boots and strode into the crowded race for the GOP presidential nomination in August 2011. A ferocious fundraiser who was buoyed by both tea party activists and mainstream Republicans, Perry had presided over a Texas economy that was booming and had such TV anchorman good looks he was dubbed by some "governor good hair."

 But his presidential run flamed out spectacularly, culminating in a debate where Perry remembered that he'd pledged to shutter the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Education but forgot the other one, the Department of Energy. Quipped late-night comedian Jimmy Fallon: "It turns out George Bush was actually the smart Texas governor."

 Perry first endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the race then turned his support behind the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney.

 It was a long way to fall for Perry, considered the most powerful Texas governor since the Civil War. The governorship had traditionally been a weak one, with the lieutenant governor charged with overseeing the Legislature.

 Perry set the tone for his tenure in June 2001, however, vetoing more than 80 bills in what became known in Austin as the "Father's Day Massacre." Since then, he has vetoed scores of other would-be laws, including a $35 billion public education budget and a ban on executing mentally disabled inmates.

 But most of Perry's power has come from his sheer longevity, remaining in office long enough to tap loyalists _ and sometimes even his top donors _ to every major appointed post statewide.

 His tendency to shoot from the hip has occasionally caused problems. Ending a television interview in 2005, Perry smirked at the camera and signed off: "Adios, mofo." He claimed he didn't know he was still on the air, but it became a kind of Texas catchphrase.

 Four years later, Perry hinted the state might want to secede from the U.S. While jogging in a rural corner of Austin in 2010, meanwhile, he somehow produced a laser-sighted pistol from his running shorts and shot dead a coyote he said was menacing his daughter's dog.

 Just last month, Perry had a notable dust-up with state Sen. Wendy Davis, who led the abortion filibuster and is considered the likely front-runner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination should she run.

 Perry claimed Davis should have understood the value of each human life because of her history as a former teenage mother who went on to graduate from Harvard Law School. Davis shot back that Perry's statement "tarnishes the high office he holds."

 Perry won a seat in the Texas Legislature as a Democrat in 1984, when Texas was still reliably blue. As the state turned deeply red, so did Perry, becoming lieutenant governor in 1998 and taking his current post when Bush left for the White House in December 2000.

 Though he has sought to become another Texan in the White House, Perry and Bush actually don't get along very well. Austin insiders trace the bad blood between their respective camps back to 1998 and Bush refusing Perry's request to appoint his attorney brother-in-law to a judgeship. And, in 2011, the Bush family endorsed Romney _ not Perry.

 Still, Perry won re-election as governor in 2002 and 2006, and then trounced U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in what was supposed to be a prolonged and bruising battle for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2010. That year's general election against Democrat Bill White was even easier. ||||| Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said Monday he will not run for reelection in 2014 and left open the possibility of making a second run for president.

 Citing Ecclesiastes, the 63-year-old and Texas’s longest-serving governor said he would leave office at the end of this term and decide what to do next.

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 “The time has come to pass on the mantle of leadership. Today, I am announcing I will not seek reelection as governor of Texas,” said Perry, speaking before supporters at a Caterpillar dealership in San Antonio. “I will spend the next 18 months working to create more jobs, opportunity and innovation. I will actively lead this great state. I’ll also pray and reflect and work to determine my own future path.”

 (PHOTOS: Rick Perry's career)

 “Any future considerations, I will announce in due time and I will arrive at that decision appropriately,” said Perry, who spent much of the event highlighting his record on the state economy, budget and job creation.

 Perry’s decision clears the way for state Attorney General Greg Abbott to run for governor. The Republican is considered the likely frontrunner in Perry’s absence and has been laying groundwork for a campaign.

 Abbott “will make his intentions clear in the coming weeks,” campaign spokesman Matt Hirsch told POLITICO. He said Abbott has no campaign events planned for this week, but did note Abbott has a meet-and-greet scheduled with supporters in San Antonio on July 14.

 Abbott’s war chest dwarfed Perry’s at last count. Abbott had about $18 million on hand at the end of last year, according to Texas Ethics Commission filings. Perry had about $6 million. Observers in Austin took that as one sign that Perry was likely on his way out.

 (Also on POLITICO: 5 things to know about Texas Gov. Rick Perry)

 A recent poll showed Texas voters did not look favorably on another gubernatorial run for Perry. Sixty percent said he should not run for reelection, according to Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. Thirty percent said he should.

 But in hypothetical matchups with Abbott and several of the state’s better-known Democrats – including state Sen. Wendy Davis and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro – Perry still led, the poll showed.

 Any Democratic gubernatorial candidate would face an uphill fight in a state that has not elected a statewide Democrat since 1994.

 Perry took office in 2000 after then-Gov. George W. Bush was elected president. He won three subsequent elections, most recently beating then-Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 gubernatorial primary and Democrat Bill White in the general election.

 In August 2011, Perry joined the Republican presidential primary race. He famously stumbled in a debate by forgetting one of the federal departments he proposed eliminating. He dropped out in January 2012.

 On Sunday, he talked at more length about a possible second run for president.

 “Well, certainly, that’s an option out there, but again, we got a lot of work to do in this building right behind me [the Texas Capitol] over the course of the next couple of weeks that have my focus substantially more than even 2014 or 2016,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” ||||| Rick Perry had led a charmed political life, never losing an election between 1984 and 2010, despite switching parties and having the state around him shift from faithfully Democratic to fiercely Republican. But the longest-serving governor in Texas history saw his ballot-box fortunes change dramatically with 2011 and his disastrous run for the White House.

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 FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry waits to be introduced at a campaign stop at the Hilton Head Diner, in Hilton Head, S.C. Perry announced... (Associated Press)

 ___

 March 4, 1950 _ Born in Paint Creek, a rural farming village north Abilene.

 September 1968 _ Arrives at Texas A&M University, becomes a "yell leader;" dreams of being a veterinarian but Perry's science grades steer him instead to flight school. Joins U.S. Air Force upon graduation.

 November 1982 _ Marries Anita Thigpen, who Perry first met at an elementary school piano recital. The couple has two adult children; The Perrys became grandparents in June 2013.

 November 1984 _ Elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat serving Denton County in rural West Texas.

 September 1989 _ Becomes a Republican mere days after learning he wouldn't be named chairman of the powerful House Calendars Committee.

 November 1990 _ Upsets Democratic incumbent Jim Hightower to become Texas Agricultural Commissioner _ with the help of then little-known GOP strategist Karl Rove.

 November 1998 _ Tops his former Texas A&M roommate, Democrat John Sharp, to become lieutenant governor. Perry gets backing from then-Gov. George W. Bush, who wanted to leave for the White House but keep the Texas governorship in Republican hands.

 December 2000 _ Sworn in as Texas' 47th governor after Bush left to become president.

 November 2002 _ Bests Democrat Tony Sanchez, a Laredo oilman and banker, to win his first full-term in office.

 November 2006 _ Captures just 39 percent of the vote, but it's enough to retain his post, besting a Democratic challenger and two independents.

 March 2010 _ Easily tops U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in Texas' GOP gubernatorial primary, dominating what was supposed to be a bruising battle between the state's top Republicans.

 February 2010 _ Produces a laser-sited pistol from his running shorts and shoots a coyote he says was menacing his daughter's dog while jogging in rural Austin.

 August 2010 _ Replies: "I have no intention to go to Washington, D.C." when asked during a fundraiser at a barbeque restaurant if he's planning to run for president in 2012.

 November 2010 _ Easily beats Democrat Bill White to win an unprecedented third gubernatorial term.

 August 13, 2011 _ Announces in South Carolina that he will run for president.

 Sept. 22, 2011 _ Still a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, Perry says "I don't think you have a heart" of those who oppose Texas' policy of offering in-state college tuition to the children of illegal immigrants. His popularity slips and never recovers.

 Nov. 9, 2011 _ Forgets the third of three federal departments he has promised to shutter if elected during a Republican debate in Rochester, Michigan. His "Oops" moment is much of America's lasting image of Perry.

 Jan. 19, 2012 _ Drops out of the presidential race in South Carolina, two days after a dismal showing in the state's primary. Perry says he's "neither discouraged nor disenchanted" but was "highly rewarded" by his experience.

 Jan. 13, 2013 _ Tells a Dallas TV station that he and popular fellow Republican and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have a gentlemen's agreement not run against each other for governor. Abbott never confirms such a deal.

 June 26, 2013 _ Convenes a second special legislative session after a 12-plus hour filibuster by Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis and hundreds of shouting protesters run out a midnight deadline to approve sweeping new restrictions on abortion during the first special session that ended June 25.

 July 8, 2013 _ Announces in San Antonio he won't seek re-election. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– As Rick Perry was waxing poetic over his political future yesterday, he refused to rule out a 2016 run for the White House, calling it "certainly ... an option out there." Today, Texas' longest-serving governor said he "will not seek re-election" in 2014, reports the AP, during a gathering of friends and supporters he called to discuss "exciting future plans." "The time has come to pass on the mantle of leadership," he said, as per CNN; his move opens the door for longtime Texas AG Gregg Abbott. And it does nothing to quell speculation about a run in 2016, notes Politico. "I will spend the next 18 months working to create more jobs, opportunity, and innovation," said Perry. "I will actively lead this great state. I’ll also pray and reflect and work to determine my own future path." The AP has a timeline of Perry's career here.


Article:

Iran releases American spies on bail

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 Iran releases US detainees Shane Bauer (L) and Joshua Fattal (R) on Wednesday, September 21, 2011.

 The Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed the release of two US nationals, who had been convicted of illegal entry and espionage in Iran, on bail.

 Branch 36 of Tehran's Appeals Court has agreed to commuted the detention sentences of the two US nationals to release on a total bail of USD 1,000,000, a statement released by Iran's Judiciary said on Wednesday.Shane Michael Bauer and Joshua Felix Fattal had earlier been sentenced by Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolution Court to eight years in prison on charges of illegal entry and espionage.Sarah Emily Shourd, who had also been detained along with Bauer and Fattal, was released in September 2010 on a USD500,000 bail.Bauer, Fattal and Shourd were arrested on Iranian territory in July 2009 after illegally crossing the border from the mountains of northern Iraq's Kurdistan region.They were later charged with espionage after the Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi found "compelling evidence" that the three US citizens had been cooperating with US intelligence agencies.MAB/HGH ||||| Two American hikers jailed in Iran since 2009 were freed from prison Wednesday and flown to Oman, where they were reunited with joyful family members.

 Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, both 29, were released Wednesday evening local time after spending more than two years in prison on charges of illegal entry and espionage since they and a companion, Sarah Shourd, were arrested on the border between Iraq and Iran while hiking in the mountainous region. Shourd, who was freed last year and is engaged to Bauer, was on hand in Oman to greet the two as they ran down the stairs from the private plane that picked them up in Iran and flew them to freedom.

 “We’re so happy we are free,” Fattal told reporters at Muscat International Airport in Oman.

 “Two years in prison is too long,” Bauer said. He expressed hope that Wednesday’s release would lead to “freedom for political prisoners in America and Iran.” After making their brief statements, Bauer and Fattal left the airport with their families.

 The release came a day before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York, and it seemed timed at least in part as a goodwill gesture ahead of the speech.

 “We are thrilled,” said President Obama, also in New York for the U.N. session, after being informed of the release. He told reporters it was a “wonderful day” for the two men’s families “and for us.”

 In a statement issued later by the White House, Obama praised “the tireless advocacy” of the families. He also expressed gratitude to Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the ruler of the tiny monarchy on the Arabian Peninsula, and to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the Swiss government and others around the world “who have worked steadfastly over the past two years to secure the release of Shane and Josh.”

 A convoy of official cars left Tehran’s notorious Evin prison about 6:30 p.m. local time (10 a.m. in Washington), the government-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

 The plane carrying the hikers left Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport and arrived in Oman about 3:40 p.m. Washington time.

 The two men raced down the aircraft’s stairs to embrace family members waiting on the tarmac, television images showed.

 Both men were surrounded by journalists and U.S. Embassy officials, as Bauer hugged Shourd, who was released from Evin prison in September 2010 on medical grounds.

 “Today can only be described as the best day of our lives,” the family members said in a joint statement reported by the Associated Press. “We have waited for nearly 26 months for this moment,” it added. “We now all want nothing more than to wrap Shane and Josh in our arms, catch up on two lost years and make a new beginning, for them and for all of us.”

 Masoud Shafiei, an Iranian lawyer representing Bauer and Fattal, spent two hours inside the prison complex earlier in the day completing paperwork for the Americans’ release. He told the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency that the government of Oman had paid $1 million bail for Bauer and Fattal. Oman also reportedly paid bail last year to secure the release of Shourd.

 After signing the papers, Shafiei waited outside the prison with the Swiss ambassador to Iran, Livia Leu Agosti, who represents U.S. interests in the country because Washington and Tehran do not have diplomatic relations.

 When two Iranian government cars left the prison complex, presumably with the Americans inside, Shafiei and Agosti sped after them.

 Bauer and Fattal were convicted of espionage charges in a closed trial last month. They denied being spies, maintaining that if they crossed the Iranian border, they did so accidentally while hiking with Shourd.

 Ahmadinejad told journalists from The Washington Post and NBC News last week that Bauer and Fattal would receive a “unilateral pardon” and would be home “within days.”

 The next day, Iran’s judiciary, which is led by Shiite Muslim clerics who once supported Ahmadinejad but now oppose him, reacted angrily, stressing that Ahmadinejad did not have the authority to free the men.

 On Sunday, the men’s release was delayed again because one of the judges whose signature is required on the bail paperwork was on vacation. Shafiei said that he had received the second signature Wednesday morning.

 The controversy over the hikers was the dominant backdrop as Ahmadinejad headed to New York on Monday to participate in the annual U.N. General Assembly session.

 News of the release was welcomed Wednesday by officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who were part of a delegation of U.S. religious leaders and American Muslims who traveled to Iran to ask that the hikers be allowed to leave.

 “We believe the efforts of the recent interfaith delegation to Iran offer a positive example of bridge-building initiatives that may be undertaken to help promote mutual understanding and cooperation between nations,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. “We hope our government will now address the issue of Iranian citizens detained in the United States with the same spirit of compassion.”

 Staff writer William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report. |||||
What is a summary?

– After being jailed for more than two years, American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal walked out of Evin prison free men this morning, confirms Iranian state television. Their lawyer had said earlier that they would be released within hours, after a vacationing judge returned and the second signature needed to free them on $1 million bail was secured. In a statement quoted on a semi-official Iranian news agency, the country’s judiciary confirmed the bail request had been “accepted,” reports the Washington Post.


Article:
WHITE CLOUD, Mich. (WOOD) — A jury has found a woman guilty in the murder of her husband who died in their Sand Lake-area home in 2015.

 On Wednesday, 46-year-old Glenna Duram was found guilty of first-degree murder and a felony firearm charge in Newaygo County Court.

 Martin Duram was shot five times and found dead in their Ensley Township home in May 2015. Glenna Duram survived a bullet wound to the head in what prosecutors said was a suicide attempt.

 Family members said the couple’s pet, an African grey parrot named Bud, seemed to replay the murder by mimicking what sounds like an argument between a male and female.

 In a video the family said it took several weeks after the incident, the bird says, “Don’t f—ing shoot.”

 The prosecutor previously said the bird wasn’t ruled out as a potential piece of evidence, but did not end up using the pet in court.

 Duram is expected back in court for sentencing on Aug. 28.

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  ||||| NEWAYGO COUNTY, MI -- A Sand Lake area woman has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2015 shooting death of her husband.

 A jury deliberated more than eight hours before returning with a verdict against Glenna Duram, 49.

 Duram was accused of shooting her husband, 46-year-old Martin Duram, five times in May 2015 and then turning a gun on herself.

 Rescuers found the couple in their home on May 13, 2015.

 Woman charged with murder one year after husband's killing

 Glenna Duram was seriously wounded. She recovered and was charged with murder in June 2016.

 Police suggested that financial issues may have led to some type of fight between the Durams. Their house was in foreclosure in 2015.

 Duram is to be sentenced Aug. 28 |||||Summary:

– A jury has convicted a western Michigan woman of first-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband in a crime apparently witnessed by the man's pet parrot. The Newaygo County jury deliberated about eight hours before finding 49-year-old Glenna Duram guilty Wednesday of killing 46-year-old Martin Duram, reports the AP. He was shot five times in May 2015. Glenna Duram suffered a head wound in what prosecutors said was a suicide attempt, but survived. Martin Duram's ex-wife, Christina Keller, has said that after the slaying, the African grey parrot, Bud, repeated "don't (expletive) shoot" in Martin Duram's voice. Keller took ownership of the bird after Martin Duram's death. MLive reports that police floated money woes as a possible motive, and notes the couple's home was in foreclosure at the time. WOOD reports the pet was not "used" in court. Duram is due to be sentenced Aug. 28 on the murder and a felony firearm charge.