Here is a news article: Rethinking natural altruism: Simple reciprocal interactions trigger children’s benevolence

 Significance This research showed that a very simple reciprocal activity elicited high degrees of altruism in 1- and 2-y-old children (as well as older children), whereas friendly but nonreciprocal activity did not. By doing so, it calls into question the current, dominant claim that young humans are naturally and spontaneously altruistic and that socialization cannot account for their altruistic actions. Beyond their scientific innovation, the findings can have important implications for adult–child interactions. Caregivers may engage in simple reciprocal activities that foster both the enactment of altruism in children and their expectation of altruism from others.

 Next Section Abstract A very simple reciprocal activity elicited high degrees of altruism in 1- and 2-y-old children, whereas friendly but nonreciprocal activity yielded little subsequent altruism. In a second study, reciprocity with one adult led 1- and 2-y-olds to provide help to a new person. These results question the current dominant claim that social experiences cannot account for early occurring altruistic behavior. A third study, with preschool-age children, showed that subtle reciprocal cues remain potent elicitors of altruism, whereas a fourth study with preschoolers showed that even a brief reciprocal experience fostered children’s expectation of altruism from others. Collectively, the studies suggest that simple reciprocal interactions are a potent trigger of altruism for young children, and that these interactions lead children to believe that their relationships are characterized by mutual care and commitment.

 The 19th-century philosopher Auguste Comte coined the term “altruism” to denote an ethical doctrine that places great value on helping others accomplish their goals (1). Today, the study of altruism is one of the most popular areas of research across the biological and social sciences (2⇓⇓–5). Perhaps one of the most consequential questions in the field of altruism involves illuminating its causes. Why do people help each other?

 In recent years, rather than primarily relying on studies with human adults or with animals to understand the roots of altruism, scientists have taken to studying the behavior of young humans. One of the most prominent findings in this area is that 1- and 2-y-olds often provide help to novel individuals (6, 7). These groundbreaking results have been taken as evidence that the capacity for humans to provide help is unlikely to result from “acculturation, parental intervention, or any other form of socialization” (8).

 Is it truly the case that social experience has little or no role to play in promoting early helping? In our research, rather than interpreting early occurring helping behavior as indicating natural altruism (8), we tested the hypothesis that helping behavior could result from the values or practices subtly communicated in a social situation (9, 10).

 Because research across the biological and social sciences has identified reciprocity as a building block of altruism (11⇓–13), we tested whether, rather than simply emerging automatically, helping would be evident when specific cues of reciprocity were present in the laboratory situation, but would be displayed at much lower levels when such cues were absent. If this were the case, the research would highlight the sensitivity of young children to subtle social cues that signal the nature of an interaction or relationship and, at the same time, make more plausible the role of social experience in triggering young children’s benevolent actions.

 Thus, we proposed that a brief experience with reciprocity (e.g., passing a ball back and forth) could well communicate benevolent values or practices and thereby serve as a trigger of children’s altruism. Indeed, because children may not be used to participating in studies or may be wary of strangers, experimenters typically engage in a “warm-up” activity that is aimed at acclimating children to the testing room and to the experimenter. Often, these experiences involve simple reciprocal activities, such as rolling a ball back and forth together or playing with the same set of objects in a back-and-forth manner. We note that the researchers who have claimed that social experiences do not account for early occurring helping behavior report such warm-up activities with their young participants in their studies on helping (14, 15). Thus, we believe that prior studies showing high degrees of spontaneous altruism in young children (6⇓–8) may have actually exposed children to cues of reciprocity and that these cues may be responsible for children’s helping. If we could demonstrate this, we would have evidence for an important claim—that reciprocal experiences engender altruism in quite young humans—and that would license the further suggestion that social histories can be an important trigger of helping behavior.

 We present the results of four studies. In study 1, a reciprocal interaction led 1- and 2-y-olds to become far more helpful than a friendly interaction that was not reciprocal. In study 2, the effects of a single reciprocal interaction carried over to affect how much children of this age helped a second person in the situation. In study 3, we asked whether reciprocity remained a potent cue for older (preschool) children and found that reciprocal interactions promoted greater generosity. Finally, study 4, also with preschoolers, suggested that reciprocal interactions trigger an important belief in the mind of a child: the perception of benevolence in that situation.

 Previous Section Next Section Study 1 The Stanford University Institutional Review Board approved this study and all parents provided informed consent. Thirty-four 1- and 2-y-olds (M = 2.11 y, SD = 0.58, 17 girls) were randomly assigned in study 1 to a warm-up period that involved either reciprocal play or parallel play. The experimenter began the session by enthusiastically greeting the caregiver and child and bringing out “fun toys” from a bag. Two sets of identical toys existed. In the reciprocal play condition, the experimenter retrieved only one set of toys and engaged reciprocally with the child by taking turns rolling a ball, pushing buttons on a small musical toy, and handing large plastic rings to each other. In the parallel play condition, the experimenter and the child each had his or her own set of toys. Under both conditions the experimenter sat 3 ft away from the child, looked and smiled toward the child’s face every 30 s, and made the same friendly statements about the situation in a playful tone each time that he looked at the child (e.g., “Toys are fun!”) After 6 min, the experimenter removed the toys and proceeded to the test phase. In the test trials, taken directly from prior research (6), the experimenter unambiguously needed and desired help to attain four goals: to reach a block, a bottle, a clothespin, and a pencil that were out of reach. Children were given 30 s to help on each trial, as the experimenter continued to reach toward the object. Because there was no interaction between age and condition in predicting helping (P = 0.46), we aggregated across 1- and 2-y-olds. As hypothesized, children in the reciprocal play condition helped on significantly more of the four trials (M = 3.05, SD = 1.51) than children in the parallel play condition [M = 1.23, SD = 1.48, t (32) = 3.55, P = 0.001, d = 1.21, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: 0.76–2.79] (Fig. 1A). The low level of helping in the parallel play condition is particularly striking, given the salience of the experimenter’s need for help and given that children had little else to do in that situation. View larger version: Download PPT Fig. 1. Effect of reciprocal play manipulation on helping in study 1 (A) and study 2 (C) and on generosity in study 3 (B). Error bars represent the SEM. Did the experimenter signal something more to the child than the terms of their particular relationship? Did he also signal that the more general norm in the situation was one of benevolence? In study 2, we examined whether the altruism engendered by our reciprocal play procedure could trigger helpfulness toward a second person. If so, we could take this as evidence that the children had become “acculturated” to the altruistic norm of the environment. We also introduced a control condition to clarify whether reciprocal play increases helping or parallel play decreases it.

 Previous Section Next Section Study 2 Thirty 1- and 2-y-olds (M = 2.16, SD = 0.48, 13 girls) were randomly assigned in study 2 to one of three conditions. One condition was a control condition in which the child played by herself while the experimenter sat on a nearby chair and talked to the child in the same manner as in the other conditions. The other two conditions were identical to the parallel and reciprocal play conditions in study 1. Following these procedures, the experimenter brought in an assistant who was blind to the condition. When the experimenter left the room, the assistant proceeded to reach toward the objects in the same help-seeking way that the experimenter had done in study 1. Because there was no interaction between age and condition in predicting helping (P = 0.15), we again aggregated across 1- and 2-y-olds. A one-way ANOVA showed an effect of condition: F(2, 27) = 7.64, P = 0.002. As hypothesized, the children in the reciprocal play condition helped the assistant at a significantly higher rate (M = 3.00, SD = 1.63) than children in either the control condition [M = 1.20, SD = 1.47, t (18) = 2.58, P = 0.019, d = 1.16, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: 0.33–3.03] or the parallel play condition (M = 0.70, SD = 0.94), t (18) = 3.85, P = 0.001, d = 1.72, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: 1.08–3.33. Importantly, the control and parallel play conditions did not differ from one another [t (18) = 0.9, P = 0.37, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: −0.54–1.62] (Fig. 1C). As such, parallel play did not reduce helping; reciprocal play produced it. How can these effects be explained? One potential answer is that reciprocal experiences made children experience the interaction in a more positive way and that this affective positivity accounted for children’s behavior. To address this possibility, two independent raters (blind to the hypothesis) watched videos of the warm-ups from study 2 and used a 1–5 scale to rate the amount of fun that the children had while playing. Specifically, coders were explicitly told that having fun in this situation involved the child engaging with the toys, smiling toward the experimenter or their caregiver, or moving around the play area—all behavioral signs that the children were comfortable and engaged in the situation. Because interrater reliability was high (α = 0.91), the scores were averaged. The results showed that children in the parallel and reciprocal play conditions were both above the midpoint (3) in rated fun and did not differ significantly [M = 3.20, SD = 1.13 for the parallel condition; M = 3.90, SD = 1.07 in the reciprocal condition), t (18) = 1.41, P = 0.17, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: −0.25–1.62]. Importantly, children’s fun did not explain their helping behavior [mediation test (16) 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: −0.17–1.22]. Relatedly, although children clearly had less fun in the no-treatment control condition (M = 2.80, SD = 1.29) than in the reciprocal play condition [t (18) = 2.07, P = 0.05, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: 0.06–2.10], the amount of fun that children had did not explain their helping, mediation test (95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: −1.90–0.23). As such, a fun differential did not account for the effect of condition. The results of study 2 are meaningful and striking: children in the parallel play condition (and the control condition) tended to stand by and do nothing when a new person needed help—despite the fact that there was little else to do in the situation. By contrast, the children in the reciprocal play condition responded by helping time and time again—despite the fact that this new person had previously done nothing for them and now gave them nothing in return. As such, these patterns contradict the claim that social experiences are not related to helping in 1- and 2-y-old children (8). Our findings may seem inconsistent with another recent finding that 2-y-olds do not seem to help puppets who help them any more than they help puppets who do not help them, which has been interpreted to mean that young toddlers do not use reciprocity as a cue for helping (15). In contrast, our data show that 1- and 2-y-olds are actually capable of using far subtler forms of reciprocity to infer the benevolent norms of the situation. Moreover, it is possible in this past research that a prior warm-up period involving reciprocal play had already primed high levels of altruism.

 Previous Section Next Section Study 3 In studies 3 and 4, we turn to somewhat older children to answer a complementary set of questions. Thus far, we have shown that the altruism of 1- and 2-y-olds is most likely to occur when cues of reciprocity have been established. However, it is important for both theoretical and practical reasons to examine whether reciprocity remains a potent cue for older children. If it does, it means that reciprocity is a cue that not only jump-starts early altruism but also continues to promote altruism and, as such, can be capitalized upon for this purpose. Thus, study 3 examined whether a much shorter version of our manipulation could have the same effect on older children on a conceptually similar dependent variable: generosity. Thirty 4-y-olds (M = 4.52 y, SD = 0.26, 14 girls) in this study were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. In the reciprocal play condition, the experimenter and the child rolled a ball back and forth for 1 min. In the parallel play condition, the experimenter gave children a ball to play with while he played with an identical ball. The experimenter’s affect and conversation within the interaction (e.g., “This is a nice ball!”) was standardized across conditions. After 1 min, an assistant, blind to condition, announced that he was ready to play the “real” game, at which point the experimenter exited the room and the assistant administered the dependent measures. Children were given six opportunities to allocate stickers to themselves and to the (now-absent) experimenter. This measure was directly drawn from a prior study that examined children’s economic behavior (17). In two trials, children had to choose between a (1 to self, 1 to experimenter) allocation and a (1 to self, 0 to experimenter) allocation; in two trials, they chose between a (1, 1) and a (1, 2) allocation; and in two trials they chose between a (1, 1) and a (2, 0) allocation. Because there was no interaction between trial type and condition (P = 0.32), we aggregated across trials to create a composite score of the number of trials in which the child acted generously toward the experimenter. The results showed that children in the reciprocal condition were significantly more generous (M = 3.33, SD = 1.53) than the children in the parallel play condition [M = 1.93, SD = 1.39), t (28) = 2.61, P = 0.014, d = 0.95, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: 0.36–2.45] (Fig. 1B). Thus, extending study 1 and 2, study 3 found that reciprocity remained a powerful cue for somewhat older children and that even a short reciprocal interaction could trigger altruism in them.

 Previous Section Next Section Study 4 Why did our participants carry out these altruistic actions? We have suggested that reciprocal interactions establish a norm of benevolence, but we have yet to show that children view it as a two-way street. In study 4, following up on our study of preschoolers, we ask: Does a brief period of reciprocal play create the expectation of benevolence? If so, we would have identified an important source of a child’s belief in a foundational aspect of social reality: the extent to which others can be expected to be benevolent. Twenty 4-y-olds (M = 4.40 y, SD = 0.35, 12 girls) in this study were brought by an experimenter to a testing room. Once there, the experimenter asked two assistants if they could play with the child while he, the experimenter, carried out another task before playing the “real” game. Once children assented to playing with these new people, the experimenter, to remain blind to the children’s experience, turned away for the remainder of the play session. Next, one assistant sat in front of the child for one uninterrupted minute and engaged in either reciprocal or parallel play (counterbalanced); then the second assistant engaged in the other form of play for a second uninterrupted minute. As in study 3, the reciprocal play involved rolling a ball back and forth with the child, and the parallel play involved giving the child a ball and playing with another ball. Each assistant emoted and spoke in the same way during the interaction (e.g., “This is a nice ball!”) After 2 min, the assistants left the room and the experimenter turned toward the child and showed him or her pictures of the two assistants. Using a forced-choice procedure, children were asked to point to the person whom they thought would give them a gift, help them open a door, and share a toy with them. The results showed that children chose the reciprocal interaction partner over the parallel partner as the one who would engage benevolently at a level significantly higher than chance [an average of 2.15 of the three trials; one-sample t test against chance value of 1.50, t (19) = 3.90, P = 0.001, 95% C.I. with 5,000 bootstrap samples: 0.35–0.95].

 Previous Section Next Section Discussion We began our investigation by examining whether a simple experience with reciprocity might serve as a critical cue for altruism. We found support for this contention. Reciprocal interactions triggered high levels of altruistic behavior on the part of 1- and 2-y-olds whereas parallel play did not. Moreover, we found this with an age group in which altruism had been depicted as occurring naturally and without much need for social input (8). We further found that an even shorter reciprocal interaction elicited substantially more altruism than a parallel interaction in preschoolers and that these interactions yielded not only the enactment of altruism but the expectation of it from others. Thus, consistent with anthropological (18, 19), economic (20, 21), evolutionary (22, 23), philosophical (24), psychological (25⇓–27), and sociological (28, 29) theories of human contractual processes, our young participants were, in a sense, capable of drawing broad inferences about the benevolent norm of the situation on the basis of reciprocal patterns of behavior. It is interesting to note that although prior research has shown that explicitly rewarding or encouraging helping seems to lower it (30, 31), in none of our studies did we directly model, teach, or reward altruistic actions for children. Rather, we exposed children to certain cues about the local “culture.” In the parallel play condition, children may have learned that, in this culture, people engage with each other by carrying out their own activities. By contrast, in the reciprocal play condition, they may have learned that people engage with each other by being responsive to each other’s needs. As such, our findings build on past research showing that infants’ helping may be triggered by actions that people carry out, such as intentionally providing toys to the infant (32). However, it is important to note that the experimenter in our studies provided toys in both the reciprocal and the parallel play conditions. What varied across the conditions was whether the experimenter and the child engaged reciprocally, not whether the experimenter showed an intention to provide. Our research also builds on past research showing that preschoolers understand the principle of economic reciprocity and use it to guide their decisions about what others should do (33). Our findings suggest that children will be more likely to act on the principle of economic reciprocity if they have themselves undergone even a simple reciprocal interaction. More generally, and consistent with research that shows that children are avid learners who eagerly look for clues about how the physical world operates (34, 35), our data build on theories of children’s social learning (36, 37) by documenting that reciprocal interactions trigger the enactment and expectation of altruism in young children. That is, after an experience with reciprocity, children seem to construct a community characterized by care and commitment. Thus, the notion that socialization has little or no part to play in early occurring altruism (8) becomes less plausible. Experimenters, parents, teachers, and others who regularly interact reciprocally with children may be implicitly communicating to children that in these contexts people help one another. Fortunately, children seem quite eager to adopt this “benevolent social contract.”

 Previous Section Next Section Acknowledgments We thank Ellen Markman, Hazel Markus, Peter Belmi, Michael Hahn, and Takuya Sawaoka for their generous and insightful commentary; two reviewers for their helpful feedback; Meha Bakshi, Mona Matsumoto-Ryan, Kirk Holstrom, Miguel Patino, Christine Liu, Larry Liu, Thomas Farleigh, Stephanie Lim, Zachary Peters, Erick Campos, Ronald Anderson, and Sarah Jobalia for assistance; and above all, the children and caregivers who eagerly and benevolently participated in this research. We also thank several organizations for their support: the Beinecke Scholarship, the Greater Good Science Center, the Templeton Foundation, the Bing Nursery School, the Thomas Murphy Fellowship, the Center for Childhood Creativity, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and the Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence (DARE) Fellowship at Stanford University. ||||| Stanford psychologists show that altruism is not simply innate

 By recreating a classic experiment, Stanford psychologists find that altruistic behavior may be governed more by relationships, even brief ones, than instincts.

 Chia-wa Yeh Graduate student Rodolfo Cortes Barragan rolls a ball with a toddler at Stanford's Bing Nursery School, engaging in the type of reciprocal play that primes the child to exhibit future altruistic behaviors.

 Ever since the concept of altruism was proposed in the 19th century, psychologists have debated whether or not people are born into the world preprogrammed to be nice to others. Now, a pair of Stanford psychologists has conducted experiments that indicate altruism has environmental triggers, and is not something we are simply born with.

 In 2006, a study involving toddlers found that the 18-month-olds were willing to provide a helping hand to the experimenters without being prompted. This expression of altruistic behavior in such young children aligned with what many scientists believed to be an expression of innate altruism, and the findings have served as the basis for dozens of studies since.

 Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, a psychology graduate student at Stanford, and Carol Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, suspected there might be more to the story. As with most experiments involving toddlers, the researchers behind the 2006 study engaged in a few minutes of play with the children, in order to make them comfortable with new people in a new setting.

 But this interaction, however brief, might have primed the toddler subjects toward altruistic behavior, and affected the outcome of the experiment.

 "Kids are always on the lookout for social cues, and this is a very prominent one," said Barragan, the lead author on the research paper. "Does the person's play indicate that they'll care for me? These actions communicate a mutuality, and the child responds in kind."

 Barragan and Dweck designed a novel experiment to isolate the effect of the pretest warm-up period. They enlisted 34 one- and two-year-olds and split them into two groups. In the first group, the experimenter would roll a ball back and forth with the child and chat. After a few minutes, the experimenter would "accidentally" knock an object off the table, and observe whether the child would help pick it up, exactly as in the 2006 study.

 The difference was in the second group. Here, the experimenter and the child would each play with their own ball, known as "parallel play," while the experimenter engaged in the same kind of chitchat. Again, after a few minutes, the experimenter would knock an object off the table.

 The children who engaged in reciprocal play were three times more likely to help pick up the items as the children who had engaged in only parallel play. When the scientists repeated the experiment under slightly different conditions with older children, the reciprocal-play group was two times more likely to lend a hand.

 The results suggest that altruistic behavior may be governed more by relationships, even brief ones, than instincts.

 "I think the findings will stir up some controversy, but in a good way," Dweck said. "People often call something 'innate' because they don't understand the kinds of subtle experiences that can make something, like altruism, flourish. Rodolfo has discovered a really subtle experience that has a powerful influence."

 One of the arguments for innate altruism was that it was an evolutionarily beneficial adaptation – instinctively caring for others would result in reciprocal care, improving one's own chances of survival. And there might still be evolutionary pressures toward altruism, Dweck said. We have evolved automatic forms of empathy and special brain cells called mirror neurons that allow us to gauge others' emotions.

 "I think, as humans, our claim to fame is our flexibility – our ability to adapt to new situations," Dweck said.

 The researchers said that more studies are needed to verify the findings, particularly in children younger than 18 months. For now, though, the results suggest that social and developmental psychologists might need to revisit the influence of some of the everyday experimental methods common in research.

 The findings also hint at the greater positive impact that might come from reciprocal interactions at a very young age.

 "Following the reciprocal play, children felt a sense of trust in the other person," Barragan said. "If children trust the people in their world, they may have an easier time learning the culture of that world – effectively making it easier for them to achieve new levels of personal and interpersonal success."

 The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 Media Contact

 Bjorn Carey, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-1944; bccarey@stanford.edu

 Carol Dweck, Psychology: dweck@stanford.edu

 Rodolfo Cortes Barragan: cortes@stanford.edu ||||| Photo: James Peragine/Getty Images

 From the moment they’re born, parents lavish praise their little ones. “What an angel,” they say. “Aw, she’s so sweet.” But it turns out, children may not be born nice at all.

 According to a new study published in the November issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the practice of altruism isn’t innate; it’s influenced by environmental factors.

 STORY: How to Teach Gratitude

 "I think the findings will stir up some controversy, but in a good way," lead study author Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University said in a press release. ”People often call something ‘innate’ because they don’t understand the kinds of subtle experiences that can make something, like altruism, flourish.”

 STORY: Preschoolers and Sleep: What Parents Should Know

 Dweck and her partner, psychology graduate student Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, were skeptical of a 2006 study of 18-month-old kids which found they were willing to help without being prompted – so they revamped the experiment.

 They split a group of 34 children, ages one and two, into different groups. In the first group (which mimicked the 2006 study), a researcher rolled a ball back and forth with a child while chatting. The adult then knocked over an object and watched to see whether the kid picked it up. In the second group, a researcher and child each played with a ball on their own (“parallel play”), while talking. The adult also knocked over an object.

 The results: Children who took part in the reciprocal, back-and-forth play were three times more likely to pick up the fallen item as kids who engaged in parallel play. That bit of interaction may have primed the toddlers to help out, the researchers concluded.

 “Kids are always on the lookout for social cues, and this is a very prominent one,” Barragan said in the press release. “Does the person’s play indicate that they’ll care for me? These actions communicate a mutuality, and the child responds in kind.”

 To cultivate altruism at home, parents would do well to practice it themselves. “Kids tend to look at what parents do, not what they say,” E. Gil Clary, a psychology professor at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, said in an American Academy of Pediatrics press release. “And kids are more likely to pay attention to a model if they have a good relationship with their parents,” he adds.

 Mom and dad can also encourage collaboration and emphasize shared goals, according to a story published by the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. “When kids have to work together on a task, they’re much more likely to share the fruits of their efforts evenly.” Students who participate in small-group, cooperative learning exercises are “more likely to show kindness toward their classmates.”

 Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? E-mail us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Back in 2006, a study that went on to gain prominence found that 18-month-olds were willing to be helpful even without being prompted. Many assumed this was evidence of innate altruism, but new research out of Stanford and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that these kids were actually primed by the playful researchers, if subtly, to display generosity—which means that altruistic behavior may be dictated by our experiences, however brief, instead of mere instinct, reports Stanford News. "People often call something 'innate' because they don't understand the kinds of subtle experiences that can make something, like altruism, flourish," says the lead author, admitting that "the findings will stir up some controversy, but in a good way." To investigate the effect of the original study's priming, researchers mimicked it with a group of 34 toddlers, rolling a ball back and forth with the child while chatting, then knocking over an object to see if the child would pick it up. They split the group in two; in the second group, the adult and child played with their own ball independently while talking. Turns out the kids who played with the adult were three times as likely to help out and pick up the dropped object. "Kids are always on the lookout for social cues, and this is a very prominent one," says another researcher. "Does the person's play indicate that they'll care for me? These actions communicate a mutuality, and the child responds in kind." To foster altruism at home, the researchers suggest, model it, reports Yahoo. (Altruism has been linked to a specific gene.)


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Facing criticism about its overwhelmingly older, male, and white membership and increasingly vocal concerns about the film industry’s ongoing diversity problem, the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Science, the honorary organization responsible for awarding the Oscars, has responded by… well, trying to add seemingly goddamn everyone it had, for one reason or another, forgotten to invite into its membership. As part of a major overhaul, the Academy sent out an unprecedented 683 membership invitations today to film industry professionals, almost half of them women, and 41% of them people of color.

 The invitation list is a who’s who of Hollywood mainstays who were inexplicably not Academy members, international heavyweights, and big-deal up-and-comers. A large part of the push seems to have come on the director front, a seemingly endless scroll of invited directors that includes Catherine Breillat, Park Chan-wook, Lucrecia Martel, Julia Loktev, Abbas Kiarostami, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Karyn Kusama, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mary Harron, Mia Hansen-Løve, Lynne Ramsay, the Wachowskis, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, James Wan, Maren Ade, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Souleymane Cissé, Patty Jenkins, So Yong Kim, Ryan Coogler, Ramin Bahrani, and a whole lot of other people who aren’t older white dudes. (Ken Loach was also invited.)

 The list of acting invitees includes Luis Guzmán, Adam Beach, Kate Beckinsale, Morris Chestnut, Idris Elba, Bruce Greenwood, Oscar Isaac, James Hong, Tessa Thompson, Greta Gerwig, Alicia Vikander, Michelle Rodriguez, Tom Hiddleston, Michael B. Jordan, Regina King, Eva Mendes, Vivica A. Fox, and Ice Cube. The whole mind-bogglingly long list can be read here, and includes three Wayans brothers.

 Submit your Newswire tips here. ||||| The Hollywood buzzword of the moment has been “diversity,” thanks in large part to the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite and its creator April Reign. The former attorney and managing editor of BroadwayBlack.com first began using the hashtag on Twitter following the 2015 announcement of an all-white slate of acting Oscar nominees, and again when the same occurred earlier this year. When the likes of Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith indirectly joined the #OscarsSoWhite movement, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science was prompted to react, making a commitment to diversify its ranks by doubling the number of women and people of color by 2020. Wednesday became the first chance for the organization to work toward its goal with the release of their latest list of invitees, and it’s the largest and most diverse class to date. |||||
What is a summary?

– Apparently still smarting from some of Chris Rock's Oscars barbs, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 683 people—many of them women and minorities—to join in an unprecedented move Wednesday, Reuters reports. The voting group behind the Oscars is largely old, white, and male and was lambasted this year with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite after two years in a row of all-white acting nominees. In response, the academy is attempting to—as the AV Club puts it—" add seemingly goddamn everyone it had, for one reason or another, forgotten to invite into its membership.” The actors, directors, and others invited Wednesday include Idris Elba, Eva Mendes, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Ice Cube, Greta Gerqig, Michael B. Jordan, Vivica A. Fox, the Wachowskis, James Wan, Luis Guzmán, Kate Beckinsale, Park Chan-wook, James Hong, Michelle Rodriguez, and not one, not two, but three Wayans brothers. Of the new invitees, 46% are women and 41% are people of color. If all 683 accept their invite, women would account for 27% of the more than 7,000 academy members (up from 25%) and minorities would total 11% (up from 8%). “I'm especially happy to be part of such a diverse group. I actually want to hang out and watch movies with most of the people on this list," Arab-German director Lexi Alexander tells the Los Angeles Times. “To be honest, I cried a few tears when I started to get congratulation tweets in Arabic.” Other invitees took to Twitter to share similar sentiments. “Excited to use my vote to nominate talent that reflects the real world we live in—DIVERSITY," tweets Brie Larson, who won best actress at this year's Oscars.


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Bullet holes mark a window at a home near an intersection where a video released by Mexican media outlets appeared to show a soldier executing a civilian lying face down in the street with a shot to the... (Associated Press)

 Bullet holes mark a window at a home near an intersection where a video released by Mexican media outlets appeared to show a soldier executing a civilian lying face down in the street with a shot to the back of his head, in Palmarito Tochapan, Puebla State, Wednesday, May 10, 2017. The footage purportedly... (Associated Press)

 PALMARITO, Mexico (AP) — A video released by Mexican media outlets Wednesday appears to show a soldier executing a civilian lying face down in the street with a shot to the back of his head.

 The video's circulation was quickly followed by condemnation and pledges from the defense department to determine its authenticity and the Attorney General's Office to investigate the May 3 events in the town of Palmarito.

 But late Wednesday, the gritty intersection showed no signs of any investigation. Bullet-pocked facades and windows and the reluctance of residents to talk were the only indications anything occurred.

 The security camera footage first published by Diario Cambio purportedly depicts part of the military's encounter with fuel pipeline thieves that the government said left 10 dead in the central state of Puebla.

 Fuel theft has long plagued Mexico, but is generating more violence lately as federal authorities crack down. Mexico's treasury secretary said Tuesday the practice costs the country $780 million to $1 billion each year.

 The military originally said that in the May 3 encounter the thieves used local residents as human shields in an initial ambush on an army patrol. Two soldiers were killed and a third wounded.

 Reinforcements of 1,000 soldiers and police were sent in and hours later another patrol was ambushed. Two more soldiers were killed along with three attackers. Puebla state officials later said three more attackers had also died.

 It is unclear if one of those events is depicted in the video released Wednesday. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video's authenticity.

 The heavily edited video captured by a security camera shows a silver four-door car slowly reversing into the frame on a darkened street with gunshots hitting it and marks already visible on its windshield. At least one shot appears to come from the rear door on the driver's side, which is ajar.

 "We were there watching TV and suddenly you heard like collisions," said a man who lives at the intersection where the shootout occurred. He gave only his first name, Joaquin, saying he feared repercussions if his identity was revealed.

 He said there was a lot shouting from various voices and he could hear vehicles reversing and advancing, then shooting.

 "All you could do was listen because we couldn't go out because it sounded really bad, the shots," he said Wednesday. By the next morning, the camera that had been on a utility pole was gone, he said.

 According to the video's time stamp, soldiers advanced by foot on the car about eight minutes after it stopped, but what happened in the intervening minutes is not shown.

 The video shows the driver's door opening and a man stepping out with his back to the camera. At the same time, a second man exits from the rear door on the driver's side and lies down in the street. The driver is briefly illuminated as he steps through the beam of the tail light, then two soldiers rush in from the darkness and the driver quickly gets on the ground beside the other man.

 A minute later, a soldier pushes a third man from around the back to the front of the car and out of the frame. Seconds later, the man who had gotten out of the back of the vehicle emerges from the darkness and is pushed by a soldier out of the frame in the same direction.

 Then a soldier grabs the arms of the apparent driver and another soldier takes his legs, and they drag him toward the car's front and deposit him on his back. With apparent difficulty, he rolls over onto his stomach.

 Six minutes later, the driver remains face down in the street as a soldier holds a rifle in the foreground and two other soldiers stand near the car. Suddenly, a gun and helmet enter the left edge of the frame directly over the unmoving driver and there is a flash from the gun. The man's prone body bucks and the soldier in the foreground lifts up one foot as if surprised by the sound.

 Whatever happened next is not seen. The remainder of the video does not include a time stamp, but a narrator says more than 1½ hours has passed. The man's body remains in the street and soldiers walk toward the camera and the image suddenly jerks and goes white.

 The military's statement Wednesday said the video shows soldiers coming under fire and capturing suspects. It said the video apparently also shows a soldier shooting a man while in custody. That incident must be "irrefutably" cleared up by federal investigators, it said, adding: "Under no circumstances can conduct contrary to the law and human rights be justified."

 The Mexican National Human Rights Commission said it has a copy of the video and other recordings of the encounter. It said the gravity of the events demand a swift and thorough investigation.

 The Mexican military has been implicated in extrajudicial killings before, including the killing of 22 suspects at a warehouse in the Mexico state community of Tlatlaya.

 After investigating that June 30, 2014, incident, the rights commission said soldiers executed at least a dozen suspects after they surrendered. The military had said that all died in a gunfight in which only one soldier was wounded, but the AP found evidence at the scene that contradicted that version.

 ___

 Associated Press journalist Enric Marti reported this story in Palmarito and AP writer Christopher Sherman reported from Mexico City. ||||| Mexico’s defense ministry has urged an investigation of the video, which threatens to spark a new scandal over the army’s use of extrajudicial force

 Mexico’s defense ministry has urged federal prosecutors to investigate a video that appears to show a soldier shooting a man lying on the ground in the head at point-blank range, and risks sparking a new scandal for the armed forces.

 The ministry said in a statement that prosecutors should “comprehensively clear up” whether the video indeed showed the soldier shooting the detained man after a clash last week between security forces and suspected criminals.

 Published online, the video shows a shot-up car coming to a halt, coming under further gunfire and eventually being surrounded by soldiers. Minutes later, its doors open and people exiting the vehicle are forced onto the ground in a dimly lit area.

 Soon afterward, soldiers drag a man who appears to be still alive from the dark area to a well-lit part of the shot, where he lies on the ground for about six minutes before a soldier steps toward him and appears to shoot him in the back of the head.

 A dark stain then spreads outward from the prone man’s head on the asphalt as soldiers move around.

 According to the videos posted online and Mexican media, the events took place during a clash between soldiers and suspected oil thieves in Palmarito in the central state of Puebla last week, in which four soldiers and six suspected criminals died.

 Mexico suffering from 'serious crisis of violence and impunity', report says Read more

 Mexico’s army has been embroiled in a number of scandals in the past few years centering on the use of extrajudicial force, embarrassing the government and undermining its efforts to clamp down on widespread gang violence.

 In its statement, the defense ministry said soldiers had come under fire from vehicles in Palmarito and had detained some of the attackers. It pledged to cooperate with the attorney general’s office in the investigation.

 Two shootouts between federal security forces and suspected gang members in 2014 and 2015 that took more than 60 lives prompted accusations by human rights groups that federal forces had carried out extrajudicial killings.

 Three soldiers are in prison over one of the shootings.

 A report on Tuesday said Mexico had the second-highest number of murders last year among countries considered in “armed conflicts”.

 In a statement on Wednesday, the government said the term “armed conflict” used by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in its report was inapplicable to Mexico and that the final murder tally for 2016 was not yet official.

  |||||

– A video released online appears to show a Mexican soldier executing a suspected oil thief at point-blank range as he lays defenseless on the ground. The heavily edited video, taken from a surveillance camera, shows a car coming under fire during what the military describes as a series of ambushes that left four soldiers and six suspects dead in Palmarito on May 3. As soldiers surround the vehicle, its occupants exit and are forced to lie down in front of the car. Soldiers are then seen dragging a suspect to the same spot. He appears injured but rolls from his back onto his front. Six minutes later, a soldier appears at the side of the frame and appears to shoot the man in the back of the head, per the AP. A dark stain spreads around him, reports Reuters. "There was already concern about the use of excessive force by the military. Now this video seems to give us the proof," says the chairwoman of Mexico's Senate Commission on Human Rights, per the Washington Post, which identifies the man shot as Raul Jimenez Martinez, 46. Mexico's defense ministry, however, says it will cooperate fully with an investigation launched by the attorney general's office on May 4. "Under no circumstances can conduct contrary to the law and human rights be justified," the ministry says. Residents of Palmarito have already taken to the streets to protest the deaths of the suspects, placing the blame on the army, though the defense ministry previously claimed the suspects used residents as human shields.


Article:
McDonald’s (mcd) has apologized for a television commercial aired in the U.K. that some viewers claimed “exploits childhood bereavement.”

 The 90-second spot produced by London-based advertising firm Leo Burnett depicts a despondent young boy asking his mother to describe his deceased father to him, ultimately learning that they share the same favorite McDonald’s menu item, the BBC reports.

 The ad was met with a flood of negative comments on social media, some users branding it “shameful” and “cynical,” claiming it exploited the emotional trauma of childhood grief to sell sandwiches.

 A spokesperson for the fast food chain told the BBC that it was “by no means an intention of ours” to cause offense, adding that the ad was meant to “highlight the role McDonald’s has played in our customers’ everyday lives—both in good and difficult times.”

 The BBC reports that a British support charity called Grief Encounter received “countless calls” from parents whose bereaved children were upset by the ad.

 For more on advertising, watch Fortune’s video:

 Grief Encounter’s founder and president Shelly Gilbert said: “[T]rying to insinuate that a brand can cure all ills with one meal is insensitive and shouldn’t be a way to show that a brand recognizes ‘the big moments in life’.”

 Many took to Twitter to share their outrage.

 New #McDonalds advert, cynically using the story of a kid's dead dad is trashy beyond belief. Who needs 2 parents when you have McNuggets? — Tony Richman (@TonyLRichman) May 12, 2017

 There's a McDonalds advert where a mums reminiscing with her son about his dead dad. Is it that deep to sell some McNuggets? — Martyn (@MartynEwoma) May 15, 2017

 The McDonalds advert with the mum describing the kids dead dads favourite meal is particularly vulgar. Targeting the bereaved market? Weird. — Martin (@Thenh11) May 14, 2017

 There's weird and then there's "McDonald's advert" weird — Carly (@Carlyrafter) May 12, 2017

 The company further said in a Tweet that it is reviewing customer feedback. ||||| The ad has now been withdrawn (Picture: McDonald’s)

 McDonald’s is withdrawing its TV advert that was accused of exploiting child bereavement.

 The company had already issued an apology after around 100 people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

 In the ad, which was first screened on May 12, a boy talks to his mum about his late father and tries to figure out what they had in common.

 His mum lists a number of qualities, none of which the boy possesses, such as ‘shiny shoes’ and football skills.

 However, when they go to McDonald’s she reveals that they shared a love of the same burger, Filet-o-Fish: ‘That was your dad’s favourite too.’

 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

 In a revised statement released this afternoon, the fast food giant announced they would be removing the ad from all media this week.

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 The company also promised to review its creative process, to avoid a repeat of the issue.

 McDonald’s apologises for TV advert that exploits child bereavement

 ‘It was never our intention to cause any upset,’ the statement said. ‘We are particularly sorry that the advert may have disappointed those people who are most important to us – our customers.

 ‘Due to the lead times required by some broadcasters, the last advert will air on Wednesday May 17.

 ‘We will also review our creative process to ensure this situation never occurs again.’

 In the ad the boy asks his mum about his late dad (Picture: McDonald’s)

 The campaign, which was put together by London-based agency Leo Burnett, had been scheduled to run for seven weeks from last Friday.

 However it attracted widespread criticism, including from bereavement charity Grief Encounter – which said it had received ‘countless calls’ from parents of bereaved children – and the ASA, which received some 100 complaints.

 Many viewers said it was particularly badly-timed, given the proximity to Father’s Day on June 18.

 It attracted criticism from grief charities (Picture: McDonald’s)

 Dr Shelley Gilbert, founder and president of the charity, said: ‘McDonald’s have attempted to speak to their audience via an emotionally-driven TV campaign.

 Homeless man loses all belongings after van was torched in 'arson attack'

 ‘However, what they have done is exploit childhood bereavement as a way to connect with young people and surviving parents alike – unsuccessfully.

 ‘We fully support children and surviving parents remembering loved ones with memory boxes, family experiences which remind them of happier times and openly talking about the member of the family that has died.

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 ‘But trying to insinuate that a brand can cure all ills with one meal is insensitive and shouldn’t be a way to show that a brand recognises “the big moments in life”.’

 In the ad, the boy’s love of Filet-o-Fish is the only thing he has in common with his late dad (Picture: McDonald’s)

 According to the charity, one in 29 children in the UK is bereaved of a parent or sibling by the age of 16.

 Sarah Revans from London, whose husband died from a bleed to the brain in summer 2015, said the ad had caused their son distress.

 ‘The advert breaks his heart,’ she said. ‘He said it makes him sad the boy is told he isn’t like his dad.

 ‘He’s sad that McDonald’s have made it seem that children should never be sad about daddy or mummy going to heaven.’ ||||| Image copyright McDonald's

 McDonald's has apologised for "upset" caused by a TV advert that charity campaigners have said "exploits childhood bereavement".

 The fast food giant's latest British advert features a boy who struggles to find something in common with his dead father, until it is revealed they shared the same favourite menu item.

 The campaign has attracted criticism from widows who called it "offensive".

 A McDonald's spokesperson said: "This was by no means an intention of ours."

 "We wanted to highlight the role McDonald's has played in our customers' everyday lives - both in good and difficult times," the spokesperson added.

 'Upsetting'

 The campaign, from London-based advertising agency Leo Burnett, first aired on 12 May and is scheduled to run for seven weeks.

 In the advert, the boy asks his mum about his absent dad, sparking some reminiscence.

 The boy is left to wonder whether he and his father had anything in common, until he arrives at a McDonald's restaurant and orders a Filet-o-Fish and the mother says: "That was your dad's favourite too."

 Bereavement charity, Grief Encounter said it had received "countless calls" from parents saying their bereaved children had been upset by the advert.

 Sarah Fox's husband died two years ago. The 37-year-old from London said her seven-year-old son, who saw the advert, had only just started to understand the implications of his loss.

 She said: "The advert was confusing for him and really upset him. He asked me why the boy on TV wasn't 'sad' and how he could feel happy again?

 "It's an unnecessary subject to exploit for the gain of a brand."

 Image copyright Twitter Image caption Twitter users blasted the 'shameless' advert

 Tania Richman, 44 from Brighton, East Sussex, said her teenage children, whose father died last year, were also "upset and offended" by the advert.

 She said: "I didn't know how to handle them afterwards."

 Leah Miller, 42 from London raised concerns about the lack of support advice offered after the advert.

 "What are children supposed to think after watching it? That a simple meal can solve their emotional pain?

 "It's irresponsible not to include any support advice or information for families affected by this issue."

 The Advertising Standards Authority said it had received complaints regarding the advert, and would "carefully assess them to see whether there are grounds to investigate".

 'Insensitive'

 One in 29 children in the UK are bereaved of a parent or sibling by the time they are 16, according to Grief Encounter, which offers support to bereaved children and their families.

 Dr Shelley Gilbert, founder and president of the charity, said: "McDonald's have attempted to speak to their audience via an emotionally driven TV campaign.

 "However, what they have done is exploit childhood bereavement as a way to connect with young people and surviving parents alike - unsuccessfully.

 "We fully support children and surviving parents remembering loved ones with memory boxes, family experiences which remind them of happier times and openly talking about the member of the family that has died.

 "But trying to insinuate that a brand can cure all ills with one meal is insensitive and shouldn't be a way to show that a brand recognises 'the big moments in life'." |||||Summary:

– McDonald's is apologizing after one of its commercials that aired in the UK caused an uproar for exploiting childhood grief. The ad shows a young boy asking his mom to describe his late father, and being disappointed at every turn when he doesn't see any similarities between himself and his dad. That is, until he's eating with his mom at a McDonald's and his mom mentions that he and his dad share the same favorite McDonald's food item, a Filet-O-Fish. If the first word that comes to mind isn't "touching" or "moving," you're not alone. Fortune rounds up the appalled Twitter reactions, with users calling the ad "vulgar" and "trashy beyond belief." McDonald's UK is replying to a host of complaints on Twitter. In a statement, the company responded by apologizing for the "upset" it caused, saying that was not its intention and, per a spokesperson, "we wanted to highlight the role McDonald's has played in our customers' everyday lives—both in good and difficult times." The BBC reports that a UK bereavement charity says it has received numerous calls from parents of actually bereaved children, who say their kids were upset by the commercial. One critic notes it's particularly upsetting that the ad features no advice for parents and children dealing with the loss of a loved one: "What are children supposed to think after watching it? That a simple meal can solve their emotional pain?" McDonald's says it will pull the ad, but that it may still air through Wednesday, Metro reports.


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Ben Affleck became the second big-name Democrat on Christmas Eve to take a pass on the soon-to-be-vacant Massachusetts Senate seat.

 The actor took to his Facebook page Monday to say he's not running to replace Sen. John Kerry, who's expected to easily win confirmation as secretary of State. Earlier Monday, Ted Kennedy Jr. said he's not taking the plunge into elected politics, either.

 "I love Massachusetts and our political process, but I am not running for office," Affleck wrote. "Right now, it's a privilege to spend my time working with Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), supporting our veterans, drawing attention to the great many who go hungry in the U.S. everyday and using filmmaking to entertain and foster discussion about issues like our relationship to Iran."

 (PHOTOS: Best celeb tweets on politics in 2012)

 Affleck, who drew buzz but was never believed to be serious about running, said he expects "some phenomenal" candidates to emerge for the seat. A trio of Democratic congressmen — Massachusetts Reps. Michael Capuano, Stephen Lynch and Ed Markey — are the most oft-mentioned potential contenders.

 Sen. Scott Brown is by far the strongest likely candidate on the GOP side. He lost to Elizabeth Warren in November but remains popular in the Bay State.

 President Barack Obama has promised to raise money and campaign for the eventual Democratic nominee, POLITICO reported on Saturday.

 Read more about: John Kerry, Scott Brown, Ted Kennedy Jr., Ben Affleck ||||| Ted Kennedy Jr. will not run for John Kerry’s Senate seat in Massachusetts, he announced in a statement Monday.

 (PHOTOS: The Kennedy family)

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 reset Kennedy tribute at 2012 DNC convention

 Kennedy, son of the late former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, said he’s “extremely grateful for all the offers of support,” but that he considers Connecticut his home.

 Kennedy, a 51-year-old lawyer and president of a financial services company in New York, lives with his family in Connecticut but also has a home at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port.

 (Earlier on POLITICO: Scott Brown no shoo-in as Kerry successor)

 Still, Kennedy didn’t rule out a run for office in the future.

 “Although I have a strong desire to serve in public office, I consider Connecticut to be my home, and hope to have the honor to serve at another point in my future,” he said in his statement, per CNN.

 “The statement was interesting in that really for the first time he’s said out loud that he would like to serve in public office,” said Democratic strategist Scott Ferson. “But I think he’s being thoughtful about it — he knows where he’s made his life and sees his future there.”

 The news comes a day after former Rep. Patrick Kennedy indicated that his older brother was giving serious consideration to running.

 Insiders in Massachusetts say Kennedy’s decision isn’t a big surprise, and that the expected Democratic field is mostly unchanged. It is, however, a boon to former Sen. Scott Brown, who is likely to run on the Republican side and has high name recognition throughout the state.

 “There were plenty of trial balloons,” Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh said. “The fact that Ted Kennedy decided not to run isn’t a big surprise, and the [Democratic] field is the same at the moment.”

 The names that come up most frequently on the Democratic side are Massachusetts Reps. Michael Capuano, Stephen Lynch and Ed Markey.

 On the Republican side, it’s likely that Brown — who won his seat in the state’s 2010 special election to succeed Edward Kennedy — will run again. Brown was defeated in November by Democrat Elizabeth Warren as he sought a full six-year term.

 Actor-filmmaker Ben Affleck has also been mentioned as a possible candidate.

 Ferson said the Democratic field hasn’t changed in the wake of Ted Kennedy’s decision, but that if he’d decided to run, the field certainly could have shrunk, given the amount of attention Kennedy would have received.

 “The reality is if Ted Kennedy had gotten in, Kennedys suck up a lot of political oxygen,” Ferson said. “The Democratic field would not have been as big as it potentially may be now.” |||||

– Ben Affleck is done being coy about his political ambitions, and is joining the growing list of people who won't be running for John Kerry's Senate seat, reports Politico. "I love Massachusetts and our political process, but I am not running for office," Affleck wrote on his Facebook page. "Right now it's a privilege to spend my time working with Eastern Congo Initiative, supporting our veterans, drawing attention to the great many who go hungry in the US everyday and using filmmaking to entertain and foster discussion about issues like our relationship to Iran." Affleck joined the ranks of Ted Kennedy Jr., who yesterday made a similar announcement, reports Politico. Kennedy said that while he's “extremely grateful for all the offers of support,” uprooting his family from Connecticut wasn't in the cards—though he did leave open the idea of a run for public office: “Although I have a strong desire to serve in public office, I consider Connecticut to be my home, and hope to have the honor to serve at another point in my future."


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The bodies of some of the first victims recovered from downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have been brought to the Netherlands from the crash site in eastern Ukraine.

 Two military aircraft - one Dutch and the other Australian - left Kharkiv Airport in northeastern Ukraine earlier carrying the bodies of 40 victims between them in wooden coffins.

 The jets arrived at Eindhoven airport in the Netherlands where they were met by relatives, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and members of the Dutch royal family.

 Bells were sounded across the country and the Last Post played at the airport as an eerie silence fell across the airbase.

 A coffin of one victim is carried from a plane to a hearse in Eindhoven

 The coffins were carried off the planes by military personnel and each one put in a hearse.

 Sky's Ian Woods, at the airport, said: "Around 1,000 relatives are watching from behind a screen, including members of two British families, even though they don't know if their loved ones are on board the planes."

 Play video "Crash Victims' Bodies Leave Ukraine" Video: Crash Victims' Bodies Leave Ukraine

 A minute's silence was observed nationwide, and a motorcade took the bodies to the Korporaal Van Oudheusdenkazerne military barracks in Hilversum, where the long process of identifying the remains will begin using DNA, dental records and finger prints.

 Jean Fransman, a spokesman for the ministry of security in the Netherlands, told Sky News: "We have chosen this location because these facilities have everything that's needed to carry out the identification process as quickly as possible with respect and discretion."

 There was a national day of mourning in the Netherlands for the 298 people killed, including 193 Dutch, that also included a silent march in Amsterdam.

 Play video "The Challenges Of MH17 Forensics" Video: The Challenges Of MH17 Forensics

 The Dutch Prime Minister has warned it could take weeks or even months to formally identify the victims before their bodies are released for repatriation.

 A team of nine disaster victim identification (DVI) personnel from Britain, including six police officers, a crime scene manager and forensic photographer, will assist the Dutch authorities, which are leading the investigation.

 The bodies are the first of some 200 victims which are expected to be flown out of Ukraine during the course of this week.

 Play video "Missile System 'That Downed MH17'" Video: Missile System 'That Downed MH17'

 It is thought more than 80 bodies still remain at the scene.

 However, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has cast doubt over the numbers that have been recovered and handed over by pro-Russian separatists, and warned it is unclear how many bodies may have arrived in Kharkiv and been left behind.

 "It's quite possible that many bodies are still out there in the open, in the European summer, subject to interference and subject to the ravages of heat and animals," he said.

 Play video "Footage Of Downed Ukrainian Jets" Video: Footage Of Downed Ukrainian Jets

 Meanwhile, unverified video has emerged apparently showing the wreckage of two Ukrainian fighter jets which were reportedly shot down by separatists. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Nations united in grief": Annita McVeigh reports on the ceremony at Eindhoven

 The Netherlands has received the first victims' bodies from crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in a solemn ceremony at Eindhoven air base.

 Forty hearses left for the town of Hilversum where the formal identification process will begin.

 The Netherlands is observing a national day of mourning for the 298 victims, most of whom were Dutch.

 Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting down the plane on 17 July.

 UK government sources say intelligence shows rebels deliberately tampered with evidence, moving bodies and placing parts from other planes in the debris.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatseniuk claims one of its jets may have been downed by an air-to-air missile

 As fighting continued in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, officials in Kiev told the BBC that two aircraft, thought to be military jets, had been downed just 35km (20 miles) from the crash site.

 Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk later told the BBC that one of the fighters could have been hit by an air-to-air missile. He did not directly accuse Russia but said it was not brought down by a Ukrainian jet.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The hearses left Eindhoven air base in a cortege, passed flags at half mast

 Image copyright AP Image caption Members of the Dutch royal family and Prime Minister Mark Rutte watched the coffins leave the planes

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Earlier, honour guards had carried the coffins on to two planes at Kharkiv airport

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many observing the day of mourning went to Schiphol Airport, where flight MH17 took off from, to lay flowers

 Image copyright AP Image caption Teams of investigators from several countries are still at the crash site

 Two military planes - one Dutch and the other Australian - carrying the first 40 coffins landed at Eindhoven air base on Wednesday afternoon. They were met by members of the Dutch royal family, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of victims' relatives.

 Churches around the Netherlands rang their bells for five minutes before the planes landed, and flags of all the nations affected by the disaster have been flying at half mast. There was also a minute's silence.

 The coffins were slowly loaded into a fleet of waiting hearses which then moved off in motorcades.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A day of mourning is being held in the Netherlands, Anna Holligan reports

 All the bodies are being taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks south of the city of Hilversum for identification, a process that could take months.

 Two more planes carrying victims are due to arrive in Eindhoven on Thursday.

 Earlier, the coffins had been loaded on to the planes by a military guard of honour at Kharkiv airport in eastern Ukraine.

 There has been mounting international anger at the delays in recovering the bodies.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Borodai denied neglecting bodies at the scene

 However, separatist leader Alexander Borodai told BBC Newsnight that international observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had told them to leave the bodies to be collected by experts.

 "So we wait a day. We wait a second day. A third day. Come on! Not a single expert. Well, to leave the bodies there any longer, in 30 degree heat, it's absurd. It's simply inhuman. It's a scene from a horror movie," he said.

 OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw denied they told rebels not to move the bodies. He told the BBC: "It is not consistent with our mandate to tell people what to do. We're here to monitor, observe and report."

 BBC - Error 404 : Not Found

 Rebels have also been accused of exaggerating the number of bodies transported from the crash site to the town of Kharkiv on Tuesday.

 They had claimed there were 282 bodies but experts said only 200 could be verified.

 In a separate development, the Dutch air safety board said the cockpit voice recorder from flight MH17 had been successfully downloaded and contained "valid data from the flight".

 The "black box" flight-data recorders are being examined at the headquarters of the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough.

 Image copyright AP Image caption Experts have expressed concern that forensic evidence at the crash site could be lost

 Earlier in Washington, intelligence officials presented evidence they had gathered on the involvement of the rebels.

 "It's a solid case that it's an SA-11 [missile] that was fired from eastern Ukraine under conditions the Russians helped create," said the officials, who requested that their names not be reported.

 They said the "most plausible explanation" was that rebels mistook the airliner for another aircraft.

 The evidence they presented included:

 Satellite images of a facility allegedly used to train rebels near the Russian city of Rostov, which were later tweeted by Geoffrey Pyatt, US ambassador to Ukraine

 Other images purportedly showing a surface-to-air missile launcher in the area

 Analysis of voice recordings of pro-Russian rebels apparently admitting bringing the airliner down

 Photos and messages from social-media sites pointing to rebel involvement

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Richard Galpin reports from Kharkiv airport as some of the victims' "long journey home" begins

 BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said some observers suggested the US statement constituted a subtle backing off from more assertive claims over the weekend in which they said they could not rule out a direct Russian role. American diplomats said this was not the case.

 Meanwhile, fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk has reportedly left 16 people dead.

 A statement from overall military commander Igor Strelkov posted on a rebel website said he had withdrawn his fighters from the outskirts of Donetsk.

 He said they had pulled back and were prepared to defend their positions.

 The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives. |||||

– The planes carrying the bodies of some of the first victims recovered from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site have landed in the Netherlands, Sky News reports. The two military aircraft, one Dutch and one Australian, contain a total of 40 bodies in wooden coffins; they took off from Ukraine's Kharkiv Airport and landed at Eindhoven Airport, where the Dutch prime minister, members of the Dutch royal family, and hundreds of relatives of the victims were waiting, the BBC reports. Bells were tolled for five minutes before military personnel carried the coffins off the planes and put them in hearses; they'll be taken to a military barracks for identification. Click for the poignant stories of the final hours of some of MH17's victims.


Article:

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage shows former rap label boss Marion "Suge" Knight running over two men with his pick-up truck - the man in this clip survived

 Former US rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight has pleaded no contest to a voluntary manslaughter charge over a hit-and-run incident in 2015.

 The Death Row Records founder made the plea to avoid charges of murdering one man and attempting to murder a second with his pick-up truck in Los Angeles.

 Knight will be formally sentenced to 28 years in prison in October.

 His record label helped launch the careers of artists including Dr Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg.

 The 2015 incident happened after an argument over the making of Straight Outta Compton, a biopic about rap group NWA.

 Under Californian state law, a no contest plea is the legal equivalent of a guilty plea.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Knight was facing possible life in prison if found guilty as originally charged

 As part of the agreement, the murder charges against Knight, 53, will be dismissed by prosecutors, along with separate criminal cases charging him with robbery and making criminal threats.

 The deal, in which Knight admitted using a "deadly and dangerous weapon" when he ran down two men with his vehicle, calls for him to serve 22 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter with a further six years added because of the US "three-strikes" law relating to repeated violations.

 Had Knight been found guilty of murder as originally charged, he would have faced life in prison, prosecutors said.

 Who is Suge Knight?

 Knight co-founded Death Row Records with the pioneering producer Dr Dre in the 1990s, but later declared bankruptcy and the company was sold at auction for $24m (£16.7m).

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sales and profits for Knight's Death Row Records declined after he was imprisoned in 1996

 Knight has a history of legal problems. He spent time in jail in 1997 and 2003 for parole violations arising from assault charges. He later pleaded guilty to hitting his girlfriend in an incident in 2008.

 While his label was initially very successful, his fortunes began to slide in 1996 when rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in the passenger seat of Knight's car.

 In 1997, rival rapper Biggie Smalls was shot and Knight was sued for wrongful death. Smalls' estate claimed that Knight had ordered the killing in revenge for Shakur's death. Knight denied it and the suit was dismissed.

 What happened in the hit-and-run?

 The charge relates to an incident in January 2015 in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles.

 Knight was accused of deliberately running over two men with his pick-up truck outside a hamburger restaurant following an argument on the set of a commercial for Straight Outta Compton.

 One of the victims, Terry Carter, died of his injuries while the other, Cle "Bone" Sloan, suffered serious injuries to his feet and head.

 Footage of the incident captured by security cameras show Knight's vehicle pulling up to the drive-in shop, with one of the victims approaching the driver's side window. Following what appears to be a brief discussion, a struggle then ensues.

 Knight's truck is seen going into reverse, throwing the man to the ground. It then moves forward, driving over his legs and slams into the other victim, who was killed.

 Knight turned himself in to authorities a day after the incident. His attorneys had said he was acting in self-defence and was fleeing armed attackers when he ran over Mr Carter and Mr Sloan.

 Mr Sloan has denied claims he was carrying a gun during the confrontation. ||||| UPDATE: A Los Angeles judge sentenced Suge Knight to 28 years in state prison on Thursday, two weeks after the Death Row Records co-founder pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter for running over a man named Terry Carter with a pickup truck in 2015.

 Knight received the high-term of 11 years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter count that doubled because he has a prior conviction under California's three strikes law, and received an additional five years because the conviction was for a serious and violent felony and a year for the deadly weapon allegation, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said in a statement to E! News.

 ______

 Suge Knight struck a plea deal for fatally running over and killing a man in 2015.

 According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, the music producer entered a plea for manslaughter by use of a deadly weapon, which was his truck.

 Per his agreement, the star is expected to serve 28 years in state prison at the Department 101 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center starting on Oct. 4.

 In January 2015, the music mogul was initially charged with one count of murder, one count of attempted murder and two counts of hit-and-run with an allegation that he committed a serious and violent felony while out on bail in another pending case.

 At the time of the incident, the producer turned himself into the authorities, but was denied bail due to his criminal past.

 The incident, which Knight's attorney has referred to as a "tragic accident," occurred on the set of a commercial shoot with The Game, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. |||||
What is a summary?

– Death Row Records founder Suge Knight won't be going to death row—but it's going to be a long time before he sees the outside of a prison. Under a plea deal with prosecutors in Los Angeles County, the 53-year-old rap mogul will serve 28 years in state prison for killing a man with his truck in 2015, E! Online reports. He pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter with a "deadly and dangerous weapon"—the pickup truck—but will avoid a murder charge and a separate case involving robbery and making threats will be dismissed, the BBC reports. Knight fatally ran over Terry Carter and seriously injured another man after an argument in 2015, but claimed he was acting in self-defense. California's "three-strike" law added six years to the sentence.


Most people know how to eat an artichoke: Using your teeth, you scrape the meat from the bottom of each leaf.

 But Miamian Arturo Carvajal, a doctor with a family practice in Hollywood and a litigant in one of the stranger lawsuits we've ever seen, was mystified by the vegetable.

 "It takes a sophisticated diner to be familiar with the artichoke," says Carvajal's lawyer, Marc R. Ginsberg. "People might think that, as a doctor, he'd know how to eat one. But he was thinking it was like a food he might have eaten in his native Cuba, where you eat everything on the plate."

 In May 2009, Carvajal dined at Houston's in North Miami Beach. He order a grilled-artichoke special. It was a vegetable he had "never seen nor heard of previously," Carvajal claims in court filings.

 The server "fail[ed] to explain the proper method of consuming an artichoke," he says, namely that the "outside portion of the leaf should not be eaten; rather, only the inside portion of the leaf was safely digestible."

 Anybody who's ever eaten an artichoke knows the outside leaves are tough, brittle, and nearly dagger-sharp. But apparently, Carvajal courageously gnawed his way through every leaf on his plate.

 You can guess the rest of the story. Carvajal suffered "severe abdominal pain and discomfort." He went to the hospital, where an "exploratory laparotomy" revealed artichoke leaves lodged within his bowel, he claims.

 Among the alleged consequences of Carvajal eating an entire damn artichoke: "disability, disfigurement, mental anguish," and "loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life."

 This October 27, he filed a lawsuit alleging negligence seeking unspecified damages. We've embedded the complaint below.

 Riptide called Hillstone Restaurant Group, which owns the Houston's chain, for comment but have not heard back yet. A spokesperson for the group called Carvajal's claim a "silly notion," telling Business Insurance: "What's next? Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbecue ribs?"

 Arturo Carvjal sues Houston's Restaurant for not advising him on how to eat an artichoke.

 Location Info More North Dade Restaurants Map Hillstone's 17355 Biscayne Blvd., Sunny Isles Beach, FL Category: Restaurant

 Sponsor Content ||||| Are restaurants legally obligated to educate their customers about potentially dangerous vegetables?

 That is the contention of a customer of a Florida restaurant, who argues that Houston's Restaurant in Miami should have taught him about the right way to eat an artichoke.

 According to his Oct. 25 lawsuit filed in circuit court in Miami-Dade County against Hillstone Restaurant Group Inc., Arturo Carvajal said he was a customer in May 2009 when he was offered a house special of grilled artichokes, which was not on the menu.

 Mr. Carvajal said he had neither seen nor heard of the dish previously, and his waiter never told him that the outside portion of the leaf is indigestible.

 As a result, Mr. Carvajal began “experiencing severe abdominal pain and discomfort,” according to the suit. An exploratory procedure revealed artichoke leaves lodged in his small bowel.

 Mr. Carvajal alleges that the restaurant and its manager were negligent in failing to train table servers to tell patrons about “the proper method of consuming an artichoke.”

 He is seeking nonspecified damages for bodily injury, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, aggravation of pre-existing conditions as well as medical expenses, among other charges.

 Glenn Viers, the restaurant chain's vp and general counsel, said while it is difficult to make light of a situation where a guest ends up in the hospital, “It's just kind of a silly notion” that the company has a duty to post warnings against someone eating an entire artichoke. “What's next? Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbeque ribs?”

 Mr. Viers said also the firm will defend the lawsuit “vigorously.” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Just because Arturo Carvajal is a doctor, that doesn't mean he knows how to eat an artichoke—and he's suing a Miami restaurant for not instructing him on the proper method. Carvajal ordered the grilled artichoke (a vegetable he had "never seen nor heard of previously," according to court filings) and proceeded to eat the entire thing, rather than scraping just the meat off of the leaves. He later found himself experiencing abdominal pain, and doctors found artichoke leaves lodged in his bowel. He filed a suit seeking unspecified damages last month, the Miami New Times reports. In it, he complains that the server failed "to explain the proper method of consuming an artichoke." His lawyer explains that Carvajal thought "it was like a food he might have eaten in his native Cuba, where you eat everything on the plate." The restaurant's lawyer begs to differ: "What's next?" he asks Business Insurance. "Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbecue ribs?" Click here for more wacky lawsuits.


Obesity is becoming increasingly widespread in the United States, and so are a variety of dieting options. Many people who lose weight, however, quickly regain it. New research suggests that rapidly and repeatedly losing and regaining weight may increase the risk of death from heart disease.

 Weight cycling may be dangerous for your heart, new study suggests. Weight cycling may be dangerous for your heart, new study suggests.

 Obesity increases the risk for some of the leading causes of death in the United States, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Being obese or overweight is also linked to an overall lower quality of life and poorer mental health.

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that more than one third of Americans are obese, but efforts to lose weight are also significant.

 Twenty-four percent of American men and 38 percent of American women have reportedly been trying to lose weight, and the number of obese individuals who are trying to lose weight is five times higher than those of a normal weight.

 While some of these people lose weight quite quickly, they may be just as quick to regain it. This is popularly referred to as "weight cycling" or "the yo-yo effect."

 A previous study reported that 7 percent of men and 10 percent of women can be classified as severe weight cyclers, defined as deliberately losing a minimum of 5 kilograms and regaining it at least three different times.

 New research suggests yo-yo dieting can be bad for your health; it may have negative effects on your heart, even if you are not overweight.

 The effects of weight cycling on postmenopausal women

 A new study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016 suggests yo-yo dieting may increase the risk of death from heart disease among older women of normal weight.

 Although some rat studies have suggested that weight cycling disrupts metabolism and normal physiology, the effects of rapid weight regain have so far been unclear.

 Fast facts about heart disease About 610,000 Americans die yearly of heart disease. That is 1 in 4 deaths every year

 Coronary heart disease is the most widespread type of heart disease, accounting for 370,000 deaths every year

 About 735,000 people in the United States have a heart attack every year. Learn more about heart disease

 "Weight cycling is an emerging global health concern associated with attempts of weight loss, but there have been inconsistent results about the health hazards for those who experience weight cycling behavior," says lead author Dr. Somwail Rasla, of the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island.

 For the study, Dr. Rasla and team divided 158,063 postmenopausal women into four categories: stable weight, steady gain, maintained weight loss, and weight cycling.

 They followed up on the participants for 11.4 years and found that women who had a normal weight at the beginning of the study but then lost and regained weight had a much higher risk of sudden cardiac death, compared with women who kept a stable weight throughout the period.

 In fact, women of normal weight who subsequently experienced the yo-yo effect were 3.5 times more likely to die from sudden cardiac arrest than women whose weight remained stable.

 Women considered overweight or obese at the start of the study, and who experienced weight cycling, presented no increase in any kind of heart disease-related death.

 No increase in death was reported by women who gained weight but did not lose it, nor women who lost weight but did not gain it back.

 Evidence in this study suggests that being overweight in midlife increases the risk of death from two types of heart disease: coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death.

 In coronary heart disease, fat and other substances gradually block the blood vessels and stop the blood flow from reaching the heart. In sudden cardiac death, the heart's electrical system to the heart suddenly malfunctions and causes death.

 Further research needed for issuing recommendations

 The researchers note some of the limitations of their study.

 Firstly, the research is just observational, meaning that it only shows an association between weight cycling and heart problems, but it does not establish a causal relationship. Further research would be needed to explain the mechanism behind the association.

 The study also relied on self-reporting, which always runs the risk of being inaccurate.

 Finally, the cases of cardiac death were relatively infrequent and the study included older women, so a wider-sized demographic would be needed to clarify the risks of weight cycling.

 "More research is needed before any recommendations can be made for clinical care regarding the risks of weight cycling, since these results apply only to postmenopausal women and not to younger-aged women or men," Dr. Rasla says.

 Until more research backs specific recommendations for yo-yo dieting, the American Heart Association remind us of the seven steps for reducing the risk of heart disease: manage your blood pressure, control your cholesterol, limit sugar intake, get active, eat a healthy diet, keep a normal weight, and stop smoking.

 Learn about how a high-protein diet may raise heart failure risk for older women. ||||| NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 15, 2016 -- Repeatedly losing and regaining weight, known as weight cycling or yo-yo dieting, may increase the risk of death from heart disease among postmenopausal women who were of normal weight at the start of the study, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016.

 "Weight cycling is an emerging global health concern associated with attempts of weight loss, but there have been inconsistent results about the health hazards for those who experience weight cycling behavior," said Somwail Rasla, M.D., study lead author and internal medicine resident at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School, Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island.

 Researchers classified self-reported weight history from 158,063 post-menopausal women into four categories: stable weight, steady gain, maintained weight loss, and weight cycling. During a follow-up of 11.4 years, they found:

 Women considered "normal-weight" at the start of the study who lost and regained weight had about three and a half times higher risk for sudden cardiac death than women whose weight remained stable.

 Weight cycling in the normal-weight women was also associated with a 66 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease deaths.

 No increase in either type of death occurred among overweight or obese women reporting weight cycling.

 Similarly, no increase in death occurred among women who reported that they gained weight but did not lose it or, in the opposite scenario, that they lost weight without gaining it back.

 Evidence indicates that being overweight in midlife increases the risk of dying from two types of heart disease. In the first type, coronary heart disease, the blood vessels to the heart become blocked by fat and other substances, decreasing blood flow to the heart. In the second type, sudden cardiac death, the heart's electrical system abruptly stops working, causing death. It is unclear whether losing and regaining weight in adulthood also increases the risk of death from these heart diseases, so the investigators looked at this relationship among postmenopausal women.

 The study has several limitations. First, the study was observational, therefore it could only show association and not a cause and effect relationship. In addition, the study relied on self-reports, which could be inaccurate. Since sudden cardiac death occurred relatively infrequently, the cases that did occur could have resulted from chance. Finally, the study included only older women.

 "More research is needed before any recommendations can be made for clinical care regarding the risks of weight cycling, since these results apply only to postmenopausal women and not to younger-aged women or men," Rasla said.

 In the United States and worldwide, heart disease is the leading cause of death. Obesity is a major risk factor, along with high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, physical inactivity, poor diet, and smoking. One way to lower your risk factors is by following the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 program, which recommends: (1) manage blood pressure; (2) control cholesterol; (3) reduce blood sugar; (4) get active; (5) eat better; (6) maintain normal weight; and (7) stop smoking.

 ###

 Co-authors are Marina Garas, D.O.; Mary B. Roberts, M.S.; Molly E. Waring, Ph.D.; Christine M. Albert, M.D., M.P.H.; Deepika Laddu, Ph.D.; Marcia L Stefanick, Ph.D.; David K. Garas, M.B.A.; and Charles B. Eaton, M.D., M.S. Author disclosures are on the abstract.

 This study is funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

 Note: Scientific presentation time is 10:45 a.m. CT, Tuesday, Nov. 15 in the Science and Technology Hall, Population Science Section.

 Additional Resources:

 AHA expert perspective video (via Skype) interview clips (for download/edit) and infographic related to this news release are on the right column of the release link at http://newsroom. heart. org/ news/ yo-yo-dieting-dangerous-even-if-youre-not-overweight?preview= 4b43dc5a7dd762b7a35ea3c7bf52c731

 Video clips with researchers/authors of the studies will be added to the release link after embargo.

 For more news at AHA Scientific Sessions 2016, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #AHA16. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Lots of people are trying to lose weight—24% of American men and 38% of American women—but most who succeed also gain it back quickly, reports Medical News Daily. This so-called "weight cycling" or "yo-yo effect" could end up being quite hard on the hearts of both men and women, and is significantly more common an effect in women. So report researchers at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016, where they've presented their findings. They followed 153,063 post-menopausal women for more than a decade and found normal-weight women who said they'd weight-cycled were 3.5 times more likely to die from a heart attack than women whose weights were stable. They were 66% more likely to die from coronary heart disease, reports Crossroads Today. "Weight cycling is an emerging global health concern associated with attempts of weight loss," the study's lead author says in a press release. "But there have been inconsistent results about the health hazards for those who experience weight cycling behavior." While this study has a few limitations—including that people self-reported their weight fluctuations, and that normal-weight people suddenly losing or gaining weight may be suffering from other conditions—researchers say it lays the groundwork for future research into the effects of yo-yo dieting on cardiovascular health. "You should never lose weight in a drastic fashion," the lead researcher adds. "If someone is a normal weight, keep it stable." (Here's why one woman says 'no thanks' to Oprah's latest weight loss pitch.)