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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Performance reviews, as they are now administered, have come to be seen as more trouble than they’re worth. Just ask Adobe ADBE , which nixed the annual review process earlier this year.
Startup Zugata, coming out of stealth Tuesday, aims to make that frustrating process less time-consuming and more productive.
Co-founded by Srinivas Krishnamurti, a VMware VMW veteran and Philippe Van Nuijs from Jive Software, the company is also launching a software service that promises to provide employees regular and varied feedback on their iPhones in a less intrusive and time-consuming manner.
“We think it’s more important to help employees develop versus just giving them a pay raise. They need to understand what they’re good at and not good at,” Krishamurti told Fortune.
“We collect feedback from people you work with, we can point you to videos, classes with partners and track your progress,” he noted. Perhaps most important, the process is ongoing and incremental, not a huge once-a-year process that nearly everyone sees as a pain in the neck.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is launching with $3.2 million in seed funding from General Catalyst, Formation 8, Redpoint Ventures and angel investors.
Steven Herrod, managing partner with General Catalyst, who worked with Krishnamurti at VMware, said the company targets millennial workers who have different expectations and work differently than their predecessors. Herrod, formerly CTO of VMware who had 2,000 people in his group, said he really wished he’d had this tool back then.
Tailored for that cohort, Zugata is a mobile-first application and was built to provide regular feedback via a simple interface. The client software supports Apple’s AAPL iOS operating system while the backend runs on Amazon AMZN Web Services. Support for Android devices is on the roadmap.
Zugata competes with software from SuccessFactors, now owned by SAP SAP , and Workday WDAY as well as offerings from smaller enterprise software companies. But Zugata plans to integrate with some of these larger suites as well as compete with the performance review components of them, Krishnamurti said.
Zugata hopes to attract small workgroups within companies with a free version. “Those users can sign up and get feedback from their colleagues right away. And then if they want the full enterprise version with single-sign on and Workday integration, they can buy the full version. We want to start with small groups, not about something that HR buys and then shoves down people’s throats, ” he said.
This all sounds great. Key here though is support for all hte popular mobile devices and drop-dead (as in invisible to users) integration with email and other accounts to glean data about who they interact with frequently.
Cost for the full version will be per user per month.
For more on enterprise software, check out the video below.
Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the business of technology
<bot>: Startup founded by former VMware and Jive execs, launches mobile-first performance review software and says it can make them far less irritating.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160623094628id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/10/13/zugata-stealth-performance-review/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: 07/09/2015 AT 12:40 PM EDT
They don't call her "Kween" for nothing!
has managed the Kardashian/Jenner empire for years, and according to
, who works with her ex-assistant, she's a force to be reckoned with.
"I heard through the grapevine that Kris Jenner had a really great assistant who had been burned out," the
Wednesday. "She burns though them, she's a machine. From what I hear, she's very
, which is kind of funny.
Lewis, 45, went on to say that Jenner, 59, allegedly has a very particular way of making sure things get done.
"I started to hear things like, they go up to her and ask a question and she'll say 'There's someone else here who can answer that question for you,' " Lewis told Williams. "Meaning, 'You've got to figure that out.' She teaches people to think. She works them, she should run a whole training program."
And now Lewis has Jenner to thank for his all-star new assistant.
"I hired him, he's amazing!" he said. "I tell my partner Gage, let's drive by Jenner Communications and start putting our cards on the windshield. I'm serious."
<bot>: The Flipping Out star hired Jenner's ex assistant – and loves him
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150711172236id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/kris-jenner-jeff-lewis-devil-wears-prada-boss |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: It’s the last full weekend of regular season college football until September. This saddens me.
Thanksgiving | Friday | Saturday early shift | Saturday swing shift | Saturday night shift
[All times Eastern. Rankings are College Football Playoff committee rankings.]
[‘College Gameday’ sign roundup: It’s Bedlam]
Here’s what Notre Dame has done over the past month (as compiled by ESPN’s Andrea Adelson): Beaten Temple by four on a late touchdown pass, beaten a semi-good Pitt team by 13, beaten 3-8 Wake Forest despite getting outgained and beaten Boston College by three despite five turnovers. So yeah, the Fighting Irish could use a convincing win over Stanford to boost their playoff bona fides. … The annual Bedlam game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will still be nuts, but just imagine that the Cowboys had beaten Baylor on Saturday and came into the game undefeated. Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield, a sneaky Heisman candidate, hopes to be back after taking a blow to the head in Saturday’s win over TCU. Oklahoma will clinch the Big 12 title with the win.
[LSU denies report that Les Miles indicated Saturday will be his last game]
While we wait to see how conference title scenarios and their playoff implications shake out, let’s look at the other side: It appears there won’t be 80 bowl-eligible teams at the end of the regular season, which would force the NCAA to grant waivers to allow a handful of losing teams to play in the postseason. ….
Illinois is removing the “interim” from Coach Bill Cubit’s job title, giving him a two-year extension. Since the school is also without a full-time athletic director, the move is aimed at providing a measure of stability while giving Cubit somethign of an extended audition.
Well, that’s interesting: Ohio State players found themselves locked out of their hotel rooms the night before the big game at Michigan. But if it had any effect, it only fueled the Buckeyes to a rout at the Big House.
[Feinstein: After a rare loss, Meyer won again with his handling of Elliott’s criticism]
Amid reports that Justin Fuente of Memphis will take over for the retiring Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech embraced the familiar: A 12th consecutive win over rival Virginia, which faces rumors of Coach Mike London’s imminent firing. …
Stat of the day: Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch tied the FBS record for touchdown passes in a half, throwing seven (out of nine completions on 14 attempts) to give the Tigers a 56-0 lead over SMU at intermission. It appears he was tehn given the rest of the day off, as backup Clay Holgorsen started the second half.
The fourth-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes finished their record season campaign with a perfect 12-0 record after dispatching Nebraska, 28-20. The lack of offensive output may not persuade any voters that the Hawkeyes deserve a spot in the College Football Playoff, but a win in next week’s Big Ten title game will certainly help. It is Iowa’s first perfect regular season in 93 years. …
Houston (11-1, 7-1 AAC) proved the value of quarterback Greg Ward Jr. and reinserted itself into the discussion for a New Year’s bowl game — while dashing Navy’s hopes of playing in one. Ward was limited to just a few snaps of the Cougars’ lone loss, a 20-17 head-scratcher at U-Conn. last week. With him playing all of Saturday’s game, the Cougars’ offense was too much for Navy (9-2, 7-1), which allowed a season-high 55 yards, 52 points and stopped only three of Houston’s 19 third-down attempts. …
Tulane fired Curtis Johnson as coach Saturday morning, a day after the Green Wave blew a 10-point lead midway through the fourth quarter and lost to conclude a 3-9 season.
Texas (4-7, 3-5 Big 12), which wraps up its schedule next week vs. Baylor, clinched its second losing season in a row under Coach Charlie Strong. And Texas Tech (7-5, 4-5) concluded its regular season as it played it, with its powerhouse offense trying to bail out its defense. The Raiders scored what turned out to be the winning touchdown by breaking out a novel trick play from victory formation with three minutes to go. They have a 1,455-yard rusher in DeAndre Washington, a 4,000-yard passer in Patrick Mahomes and a defense that has allowed at least 44 points seven times. …
South Florida stayed alive in the American Athletic Conference title race by cruising past South Florida (0-12, 0-8), which completed its second winless season in 11 years. The Bulls (8-4, 6-2), who set a program record for conference wins in a season, need U-Conn. to upset Temple Saturday night to qualify for the first conference title game in school history, on Dec. 5 vs. the winner of Friday’s Navy-Houston game.
After spending the first 17 years of his Post career writing and editing, Matt and the printed paper had an amicable divorce in 2014. He's now blogging and editing for the Early Lead and the Post's other Web-based products.
<bot>: Jim Harbaugh gets his first crack at Ohio State as Michigan's coach.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015112819id_/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/11/25/college-football-tv-schedule-and-preview-for-thanksgiving-weekend/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: June 23, 2014: Chelsea Clinton speaks at the Colorado Museum of Nature and Science in Denver. (AP)
Chelsea Clinton gave birth to a daughter late Friday, the former first daughter announced on her official Twitter feed and Facebook page.
The girl, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, is the first grandchild of former President Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton.
Clinton spokesman Kamyl Bazbaz said the child was born on Friday but did not immediately provide additional details. The couple lives in New York City.
The baby arrives as Hillary Clinton deliberates on whether to seek the White House in 2016, a decision that could put her on a path to becoming the nation's first female president. Clinton is the leading Democratic contender to succeed President Barack Obama, her former 2008 campaign rival, and has said she expects to make a decision around the beginning of next year.
The baby has been eagerly anticipated as Hillary Clinton considers her political future — she has called the prospect of becoming a grandmother her "most exciting title yet." She even has picked out the first book she intends to read to her grandchild, the classic "Goodnight Moon."
She has said she didn't want to make any decisions about another campaign until the baby's arrival, pointing to her interest in enjoying becoming a grandmother for the first time. If Clinton decides to run for president, her campaign would coincide with the baby's first two years.
The former president has been eager to become a grandfather. During an event with former President George W. Bush in September, Mr. Clinton's cell phone rang on stage and he joked that only two people had the number "and they are related to me," musing that he hoped he wasn't becoming "a premature grandfather."
"Every day I get up and I say, 'You have to remember whose child this is. Do not interfere. Be there when you are welcome. Be loving but not judgmental," Clinton said to laughs in an interview with CNN at his annual Clinton Global Initiative, only days before the baby's arrival.
Even Obama got into the act. Addressing the annual Clinton confab, Obama quipped if Chelsea Clinton went into labor during his speech, "she has my motorcade and will be able to navigate traffic."
The 34-year-old Chelsea Clinton said in an interview with Glamour magazine last year that she and her husband had hoped to make 2014 "the year of the baby." She announced her pregnancy in April at the end of a forum in New York on female empowerment.
Chelsea Clinton grew up in the public eye as a teenager in the White House, later graduating from Stanford and Columbia universities. She worked in finance in New York and in public health, earning a doctorate from Oxford University while taking on a prominent role as vice chair of her family's foundation. She recently departed NBC News, where she served as a special correspondent.
The new parents, who married in 2010, were friends as teenagers in Washington and both attended Stanford. Mezvinsky is a hedge fund manager and the son of former Reps. Majorie Margolies of Pennsylvania and Edward Mezvinsky of Iowa, longtime friends of the Clintons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
<bot>: Chelsea Clinton gave birth to a daughter late Friday, the former first daughter announced on her official Twitter feed and Facebook page.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2014092719id_/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/27/chelsea-clinton-gives-birth-to-daughter/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Updated JUL 06, 2014 5:22p ET
Sunday was aces for Bud Cauley and George McNeill -- each carding a hole-in-one during the final round of the PGA Tour's 2014 Greenbrier Classic.
For Cauley, the feat was a consolation prize. His 176-yard, 7-iron shot at the 18th capped a round of 64 that was his best of the week and got him into the top 10 before the leaders teed off.
His was the second hole-in-one of the day at Greenbrier, as McNeill already had holed his tee shot with a 4-iron from 219 yards at the eighth hole to put some heat on leader Billy Hurley III -- after four straight birdies, in fact. Another birdie at the 10th helped pull McNeill into a tie for the lead before Hurley's round began birdie-bogey.
McNeill's ace was the second of his Tour career, the other coming in 2011 at the Mayakoba Classic.
<bot>: Bud Cauley, George McNeill score holes in one at Greenbrier Classic on same day
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<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: The motor choked twice, then issued a full-throated roar. Our driver Vanny’s relief showed around the edges of his constant smile. He steered us away from O Dambong Station with its roaming poultry and lounging drivers. We moved faster until the air was an oven blast of hot wind; banana trees and coconut palms became a green blur. We sailed above the warping railroad tracks, slowing to cross ramshackle bridges. Kids reached out for high-fives as we passed.
We were on Cambodia’s Bamboo Train: a monument to human ingenuity in a time of necessity and to entrepreneurship in a time of tourism. And we were possibly among its final passengers. The bamboo train’s prophesied demise has become like the story of Bigfoot – famous, unverifiable, and to cynics, improbable. It has circulated since 2006, when a project was unveiled to restore Cambodia’s rail system.
The bamboo train’s prophesied demise has become like the story of Bigfoot.
Years of delay followed, caused by budget issues and a controversial resettlement programme. The country’s southern line from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville was completed in 2013. But international funding waned, and many believed that plans for the northern line, where the Bamboo Train runs, would be quietly shelved.
“Can we go further?” I asked as we pulled into O Sra Lau Station, the turn-around for our ride. Our driver, Vanny, never stopped smiling, even to deliver bad news. The next stretch of track was too decrepit for our bamboo cart to handle. But he suggested a bright side: there was Coca Cola at O Sra Lau.
Cambodia’s national railroad was abandoned in the 1970s during the civil war and infamous Khmer Rouge years. Trains started running again in the 1980s, but persistent guerrilla fighting left the country’s infrastructure in ruins. Local roads were deplorable, and many communities became isolated as train service diminished and finally died.
The Bamboo Train was a grassroots solution. Wooden platforms, called norries, were built from materials on hand and driven down the overgrown rail tracks using poles, like gondolas. They carried everything: people, produce, goods for trade. Engines were added in the 1990s, powering the carts with a rubber belt around the back axle.
But norries have been dying a natural death. While roads have improved, the train tracks continue to decay. Now Cambodia’s highways are crammed with motorbikes and cars, and all that’s left of the Bamboo Train is a 7km scrap of track outside the city of Battambang. It is maintained as a carnival ride for tourists; a piece of history still struggling for relevance.
The ruined platform of O Sra Lau Station was covered with makeshift stands selling cold drinks and elephant-print trousers. We sat with Darren and Paul, travellers from Glasgow. They’d visited Cambodia before, but this was their first time on the Bamboo Train. Instead of sitting on the cushions, they decided to ride face-first on their stomachs. Norries skim the broken tracks at 30kmph. The tooth-chomping bumps can be exhilarating.
“Probably not safe,” Darren said judiciously, “but pretty cool.”
They finished their drinks and returned to their norry. We watched them bodyboard past, inches off the bucking rails.
The Bamboo Train elicits mixed feelings among travellers. It’s a tourist draw, but that doesn’t necessarily undermine the ride. On the way back to O Dambong, the start and end point of the route, we encountered a norry coming toward us on the single track. A quick head count – four on our cart, five on theirs – and we climbed off to let them through. Vanny moved our bamboo platform off the rails, then dropped the wheels and axels in the grass beside it.
When the other cart had rolled past, the driver hopped off to help Vanny rebuild our norry. While we waited, we chatted with the delighted Slovenian passengers. They loved the views, the jolts, even the relentless sun.
“This is crazy!” one woman yelled as they revved away.
Last July, the government announced plans to rebuild the national rail’s 386km northern line between Phnom Penh and the Thai border. According to Sok-Tharath Chreung, deputy director of the railway department, the first priority is to restore service from the border to Sisophon, the nearest station to Angkor Wat. After that, plans call for rejuvenating the rest of the line.
The Bamboo Train will end whenever the workmen reach O Dambong Station. The vendors around O Sra Lau and O Dambong won’t just lose their customers but probably their stands – a 3.5m corridor must be cleared on either side of the track. No one can give an exact date, but it won’t be long: Chreung expects to have freight trains rolling by 2017.
At O Dambong, we met Visal Daid, who builds norries and drives them when business is slow. He took us through the process, from assembling the frame to cutting bamboo slats for the seating platform. Finished norries, including the engine and wheels, can cost up to 1,600,000 riel – several months salary for the average driver – though the engine can also be used to power sidelines, like a sugar cane juicer.
I asked Daid if he was worried business will flag after the Bamboo Train closes. He shrugged; there’s always work for carpenters.
But most drivers don’t have another trade. Vanny offered to show us his home. It was just off the tracks near O Dambong Station, a tarp and bamboo extension off a relative’s house. He’s been a norry driver for 10 years, and when the Bamboo Train stops he’ll look for work elsewhere, maybe in Thailand.
A group of drivers have petitioned the local government to keep the Bamboo Train alive. Sinnara Mak, deputy director of Battambang’s tourism department, thinks that’s unlikely. When the track is fully restored, trains will run at 50kmph. Having norries on the same track would be dangerous, to say the least. Mak told me some private companies are looking to move the Bamboo Train to its own 15km-long track. But he warned not to count on it: a specialised track would be very expensive, and the land would have to be purchased from farmers.
For the moment, the Bamboo Train will continue to carry travellers on the clattery journey from O Dambong to O Sra Lau. It will ride the rails right up until it stops.
If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, Travel and Autos, delivered to your inbox every Friday.
<bot>: Cambodia’s gondola-like train is a monument to human ingenuity in a time of necessity and to entrepreneurship in a time of tourism.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2016041819id_/http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160412-the-end-of-the-famous-bamboo-train |
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Quentin Tarantino’s most famous characters, from the Bride in Kill Bill to Django Unchained, are as revered for their brazen sartorial style as they are their verbal pyrotechnics. And yet while Tarantino has been lauded with two Oscars for his scripts, none of his films have even been nominated for best costume design.
During Tuesday night’s 18th annual Costume Designers Guild awards in Los Angeles, the film-maker, while accepting the distinguished collaborator award from his Hateful Eight stars Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, called out the Academy for just that.
“None of my costume designers have ever been nominated for an Oscar, ’cause I don’t do period movies that have ball scenes with a hundred extras in them,” Tarantino said to huge laughs – and a few audible gasps – from the audience.
“But we do have something else,” he continued, smirking. “We have Halloween parties.”
“For the last 20 years, I go to Halloween parties and I see a white guy and a black guy dressed as Jules and Vincent [from Pulp Fiction]. I see a girl with blonde hair wearing a yellow track suit with black trim … To tell you the truth, I’ve always considered that maybe the greatest award.”
Tarantino stressed that he’s always taken the costumes in his films “very seriously”, citing his first film, Reservoir Dogs, as an example. “It’s why I made such a big deal about putting all the characters in Reservoir Dogs in these black suits,” he said. “I thought that would be a really interesting thing – you know, every guy looks better in a black suit. And by the time the 90s rolled around, if you wore a black suit, it kind of looked gangster. It kind of looked badass.”
Cate Blanchett was also honored during the black-tie event with the Lacoste Spotlight Award, from her frequent costume design collaborator Sandy Powell, who most recently worked with the actor on Cinderella and Carol.
“Everyone talks about their relationship with the other actors and the director, and of course those are important,” said Blanchett, upon accepting the prize. “But in the end, it’s in those costume fittings – those silent moments away from the rush of film-making, where you make manifest the psychological things you talk about in the rehearsal room. It’s the building blocks of a character.”
Elsewhere during the evening, Beasts of No Nation won for excellence in contemporary film, The Danish Girl for excellence in period film and Mad Max: Fury Road for excellence in fantasy film.
Costume design veteran Ellen Mirojnick (Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct) was meanwhile awarded twice: on top of collecting the lifetime achievement award, she netted the outstanding period television series prize for her work on The Knick.
<bot>: At the Costume Designers Guild Awards the Hateful Eight director said he takes costumes ‘very seriously’ – which is why they’re popular at Halloween
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2016022519id_/http://www.theguardian.com/film/costume-and-culture/2016/feb/24/quentin-tarantino-costume-designers-guild-awards-oscars |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: The Orlando shooting has once again put military-style assault rifles back in the spotlight.
Police say Omar Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX, a semiautomatic assault style rifle that is similar in appearance and capabilities to the better-known AR-15, when he killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others in the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. While Mateen didn’t use the AR-15 itself, the similarities between the gun has drawn attention to the highly deadly military-style rifle, which has been the weapon of choice for several mass shooters. The similarities prompted widespread reports, including by law enforcement authorities, that Mateen used an AR-15 itself, though officials have since clarified that it was the Sig Sauer MCX.
But there’s a reason that the AR-15 is often used as shorthand for assault style rifles. “For practical purposes, for the person that’s just tuning in, the non-gun owner, it’s a very similar type of firearm,” Rob Pincus, who has trained soldiers, police officers and civilians on rifle use for 15 years, said of the AR-15 and the Sig Sauer MCX
Here are facts about the AR-15:
The rifle has been an American staple for decades. Former Green Beret Barry Sadler sang an ode to his AR-15 he used in the Vietnam war in the 1960s, entitled “One Son of a Gun of a Gun.” A line from the song: “You see this AR-15, she’s hot and she’s mean, and she ain’t built for love or fun. And yet this AR-15 is part of the team. She’s one son of a gun of a gun.”
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, “AR” does not stand for “automatic” or “assault” rifle. It stands for “ArmaLite” — the company that created the AR in the 1950s. And failed 2015 legislation that would have banned some semi-automatic guns did not classify the AR-15 as an assault weapon.
The AR-15 and the M-16 are identical in shape, style and operation, except for a key distinction: the M-16 is only automatic, said Frank Proctor, a performance shooting and law enforcement training weapons expert in Alabama. Because the two rifles are so similar, the AR-15 is essentially the semi-automatic version—one pull of the trigger, one shot—of the M-16, Proctor said.
Automatic AR-15s do exist, but the vast majority of Americans cannot buy them.
What are the AR-15’s technical specifications?
The weapon’s caliber is .223, meaning the bullet is .223 inches in diameter. While that is smaller than some rifles, it is comparable to an M-16’s caliber—long the U.S. military’s most popular rifle.
The weapon’s projectile velocity—how fast the bullet travels—is around 3,200 feet per second.
Why is the weapon popular with gun owners?
AR-15s are highly customizable, Proctor said. For all AR-15s, the shooting action is standard, “but it can go from there, however you want to accessorize it,” he said. He also said the gun is favored because of its low recoil.
While many AR-15s can be purchased for less than $1,000, sights, grips, stocks and other accessories can cost hundreds of dollars. This 100-round drum magazine costs $116.99.
It is also normally easy to purchase. There is no waiting period for the AR-15 in Florida.
The AR-15 was classified as an “assault-style” weapon and outlawed under the assault weapons ban that lapsed in 2004.
What shootings has the AR-15 been involved in?
The gun burst into the national gun control discussion in 2012 following the shooting of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
AR-15-style rifles have been used in recent mass shootings at in Aurora, Colo.; Santa Monica and San Bernardino, Calif., and now Orlando.
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly described the gun used in the Orlando shooting. It was a Sig Sauer MCX, a semiautomatic assault style rifle that is similar in appearance and capabilities to the better-known AR-15.
<bot>: It's been used in prior mass shootings, but it's loved by gun enthusiasts
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<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160723213847id_/http://time.com:80/4366658/orlando-shooting-gun-control/ |
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: * AIG board approves selection of Robert Benmosche - WSJ
* AIG ( AIG - news - people ) spokesman not immediately available
* AIG shares down 1 percent
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Troubled insurer American International Group Inc has chosen former MetLife ( MET - news - people ) chief Robert Benmosche as its new CEO, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The AIG board approved the choice Monday morning, the newspaper said on its website.
An AIG spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
Benmosche would succeed Edward Liddy as AIG chief executive. Liddy joined the company as chairman and CEO last September, within hours of the company getting billions of dollars in support from the U.S. government after nearly collapsing under losses on repackaged mortgages it had guaranteed.
In May, Liddy said he planned to step down once replacements were found to fill the CEO and chairman roles.
AIG shares were down 13 cents, or 1 percent, to $13.01 in late-morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Lilla Zuill; editing by John Wallace)
Copyright 2009 Reuters, Click for Restriction
<bot>: AIG/ (UPDATE 1):UPDATE 1-AIG taps former MetLife chief as CEO - WSJ
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2009080419id_/http://www.forbes.com/feeds/reuters/2009/08/03/2009-08-03T153819Z_01_N03509550_RTRIDST_0_AIG-UPDATE-1.html |
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Updated NOV 04, 2014 10:30p ET
1. Cardinals - Is Carson Palmer an MVP candidate?
2. Patriots - Mr. October strikes again. Tom Brady has thrown 18 TDs and just 1 interception since Week 5.
3. Broncos - Was the loss in New England cause for concern or just a particularly bad matchup?
4. Eagles - The Mark Sanchez Era begins!
5. Colts - How good is Andrew Luck? He's the best young QB in the NFL, if you ask me.
6. Lions - Head coach Jim Caldwell has changed the attitude of this team.
7. Chiefs - Best defensive line in football.
8. Ravens - Hard to say anything nice after a beat-down loss at home of their division rival.
9. Cowboys - Defense is getting exposed without Tony Romo there to fuel the offense.
10. Seahawks - Need more production from the passing game.
11. Packers - Hopefully, Aaron Rodgers' hamstring feels better after a week off.
12. Dolphins - Ryan Tannehill is playing lights out right now (6 TDs vs. 1 INT over Miami's three-game winning streak).
13. Browns - Been saying it for weeks, and I'll say it again: They need to run the ball much better.
14. Bengals - A.J. Green and Mohamed Sanu are turning into an elite receiving duo.
15. Steelers - Score alert: Ben Roethlisberger just threw another touchdown!
16. 49ers - What's the identity on offense, and why did Frank Gore get just 14 carries in their loss to St. Louis?
17. Chargers - What’s wrong with Philip Rivers? Two interceptions in San Diego's first six games. Six in the last three.
18. Bills - Let's see what Kyle Orton can do with Kansas City's devastating pass rush coming to town.
19. Panthers - Cam Newton needs to play better, but then again so does the defense.
20. Vikings - Teddy Bridgewater is playing a lot better without much help.
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21. Saints - Finally, a road win for the Saints!
22. Rams - Defense has been playing very well (13 sacks in last three games).
23. Texans - Is it Ryan Mallett time?
24. Redskins - Robert Griffin III looked pretty good in his return, but not good enough for a win.
25. Giants - What's wrong with this offense?
26. Bears - Needed their bye week as badly as anyone. Let's see if it helped this weekend when they head to Lambeau.
27. Titans - Should be interesting to see how Zach Mettenberger fares in Baltimore with two weeks to prepare.
28. Jets - Showed some promising signs with Michael Vick in charge, but can he stay healthy?
29. Falcons - Wasn't the mantra for this season supposed to be physical football? Hasn't happened.
30. Jaguars - Blake Bortles is improving, and Denard Robinson is looking like a real playmaker.
31. Raiders - Can't get out of their own way.
32. Buccaneers - Hey, at least the weather's great.
<bot>: Tom Brady is turning the NFL into his personal playground and earns praise from Donovan McNabb.
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<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
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{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: U.S. special forces captured the head of the Islamic State terror group's unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq, a defense official tells Fox News.
"We are using information we have learned for operations,” one official said. The captured operative was identified as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari.
He told U.S. interrogators ISIS had converted banned mustard gas into powdered form to launch in artillery shells, The New York Times adds.
Just yesterday, defense officials said U.S. warplanes in Syria targeted and likely killed an ISIS leader who served essentially as the terror group's secretary of defense.
The Iraq raid marks one of the first known major success of Washington's more aggressive policy of pursuing jihadis on the ground. The Obama administration launched the new strategy in December, deploying a commando force to Iraq that it said would be dedicated to capturing and killing ISIS leaders in clandestine operations, as well as generating intelligence leading to more raids.
U.S. officials said last week the Delta Force team had captured an Islamic State leader but had refused to identify him, saying only that he had been held for two or three weeks and was being questioned.
Iraqi officials said al-Afari worked for Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Military Industrialization Authority where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons. They said al-Afari, who is about 50 years old, heads the Islamic State group's recently established branch for the research and development of chemical weapons.
He was captured in a raid near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, the officials told The Associated Press. They would not give further details.
The weaponized mustard gas that ISIS has developed would not be concentrated enough to kill, but could badly wound its victims, a defense official told The Times.
An initial assessment of the U.S. airstrike conducted in Syria last week showed that it likely killed commander Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, along with 12 additional ISIS fighters, officials added.
Beyond intelligence value, the capture in Iraq could strike a blow to what Iraqi and American officials have described as a determined effort by the Islamic State group to develop chemical weapons.
A Mideast watchdog released photos in 2014 suggesting the terror network seized chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein's old stockpiles and deployed them on ethnic Kurds in neighboring Syria. The Kurds apparently were killed by "mustard gas or some kind of blistering agent,” the Middle East Review of International Affairs told Fox News at the time.
ISIS was believed to have set up a special unit dedicated to chemical weapons research, made up of Iraqi scientists from the Saddam-era weapons program as well as foreign experts who joined the group. Iraqi officials expressed particular worry over the campaign because ISIS gained so much room to operate and hide chemical laboratories after overrunning around a third of the country in the summer of 2014, joined with territory they controlled in Syria.
Iraqi officials say the group has ambitions to develop more dangerous agents like nerve gas, though the U.S. has said it appears still far from that goal. Tests confirmed mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when ISIS was launching attacks there in August 2015.
The United States has been leading a coalition waging airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria for more than a year. The campaign has been key to backing Iraqi and Kurdish forces that have slowly retaken significant parts of the territory the militants had seized.
But after coming under pressure at home for greater action against the militants, the Obama administration moved to the tactic of stepped up commando operations on the ground.
Last year, U.S. special forces killed a key ISIS leader and captured his wife in a raid in Syria, but the new force in Iraq was intended as a more dedicated deployment. American officials have been deeply secretive about the operation. Its size is unknown, thought it may be fewer than 100 troops.
"This is a no-kidding force that will be doing important things," was about all Defense Secretary Ash Carter would say about the force in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in December.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
<bot>: U.S. special forces captured the head of the Islamic State terror group's unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq, a defense official tells Fox News.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
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{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: John Feinstein writes: “If the sexual abuse and assault charges brought by a Pennsylvania grand jury against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky prove to be true on any level, then this will be the single worst thing that has happened in college sports in just about forever.” What was one of the crown jewel of college football programs is now properly regarded as a deformed and demented undertaking. The New York Times reports:
If true, from janitors to the athletic director and the vice president for business and finance, a series of individuals placed their own selfish interests above the interests of helpless children. They enabled a monster.
The distinction between those individuals and Penn State head coach Joe Paterno seems to be minimal, based on what we know. The attorney general contends “Paterno had cooperated with investigators and fulfilled his legal obligation to pass the information to a superior when, in 2002, the graduate assistant told him about an incident involving Sandusky that he had witnessed in the football facility’s showers. Paterno is not considered a target of the investigation at this point, Kelly said. After the graduate assistant told Paterno, Curley and Schultz about what he had seen, Curley briefed the university president, according to the grand jury report. No one at the university alerted the police or pursued the matter to determine the well-being of the [still unidentified] child involved.” In other words, Paterno didn’t call the police either. Hall of Fame coach or a modern-day Pontius Pilatus? The latter, I fear.
Does he escape the prosecutor’s wrath because he is Joe Paterno? Because he cooperated with officials? Because he didn’t compound his gross sin of omission by lying under oath, as others allegedly did? As my colleague Eugene Robinson puts it: “Legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said, ‘I did what I was supposed to.’ In fact, nobody at Penn State did what basic human decency requires — and as a result, according to prosecutors, an alleged sexual predator who could have been stopped years ago was allowed to continue molesting young boys.”
Many are calling for Paterno to be fired. That’s the least that should occur. The dilemma remains: After the legal process finishes with those subject to criminal sanctions, how does Penn State atone? On one level it cannot restore to the children whose lives were ruined what was taken from them. There’s no apology that would suffice; no civil settlement that could reverse the damage.
This is the very definition of corruption — the “impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle : depravity.” And for that, the solution, it seems, must be to excise that corruption from the body of the university and reestablish the purpose and virtue of the institution. End the football program. Let the recruits go elsewhere. Level the stadium or better yet, let it decay and crumble and be an eyesore, a fitting metaphor for the program that was suffused with moral rot.
The notion that the university serves the football program should be pulled out by the roots. The university should in essence declare that henceforth there will be no confusing the priorities of the institution.
Oh, but the poor players! The athletes who wouldn’t go to college! Nonsense. There are other schools, other teams. College football will survive without Penn State, and Penn State, if it’s more than an excuse for a football team, will survive without football. And if Penn State serves as a permanent reminder ( “Why is it they have no football program?” they may ask decades from now) to those tempted to abuse power, abdicate moral responsibility or lie in pursuit of football victories, then a football-less Penn State would render some service, however paltry compared to the harm it has caused.
If what has been reported is true, what other action could be contemplated? And who in good conscience could watch and cheer a program that trampled on so many innocents for so little, for nothing other than pride and greed?
<bot>: How else to excise the evil?
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2011110919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/penn-state-football-should-be-retired-permanently/2011/11/07/gIQA9oiL0M_blog.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: IN THE WORLD OF Self-Made, hoodie-wearing technology billionaires, Sheryl Sandberg has pulled off something improbable: She has joined their ranks without founding her own company or writing a single line of code.
The fact that Facebook’s chief operating officer is a woman is incidental, of course, but it’s also noteworthy: Of the 268 newcomers to the 2014 FORBES Billionaires list, 42 are women–a single-year record and, more notably, the highest-ever percentage of newcomers (and of women billionaires overall–172 out of 1,645 ).
That’s progress. But only a bit. Only 32 billionaire women–or 1.9% of all the globe’s billionaires–had a meaningful hand in building their own fortunes, as opposed to inheriting one from a parent or husband. Sandberg joins the dozen women, including Spanx’s Sara Blakely, fashion designer Tory Burch and Oprah Winfrey, who accomplished this feat without the help of a husband or sibling. And only she and Meg Whitman, who worked at Hasbro and FTD before joining eBay, accomplished this feat as hired hands of tech companies.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has parlayed her stints at Facebook and Google into a personal fortune worth more than $1 billion. (Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Thus Sandberg’s perspective, distilled in her bestseller, Lean In, seems doubly apt. In a recent interview with FORBES she said she was “real optimistic” about the dialogue and debate generated by her book, which exhorts professional women to pour more energy into their careers, stop tolerating that high achievers are termed “bossy” while their male counterparts are praised as “aggressive,” and pick partners who will share in parenting and household duties.
“Businesses are going to care about diversity not because they want to do good in the world,” says Sandberg. “They’re going to care about diversity if it’s going to change their bottom line.”
She says that she hosts private “Lean In Circles” and, in her book, advocates for others to do the same. Over dinner at her home, other leading women hear from special guests. One speaker: Cisco CEO John Chambers. “What he understood is that it wasn’t about having women in your company but about having women in leadership roles. … If you have the best talent, you’re going to have the best performance.” That presumably will translate to more women like Sandberg shattering the ten-figure ceiling.
Women On The Rise Here are some of the notable women billionaires new to the list this year.
Sheryl Sandberg $1.05 Billion U.S. Self-Made Age: 44
Folorunsho Alakija is Nigeria’s first female billionaire. (Credit: AP)
Folorunsho Alakija $2.5 Billion Nigeria Self-Made Age: 63 Daughter of a wealthy man who had eight wives and 52 children, Alakija is Nigeria’s first female billionaire, thanks to her own lucrative oil-producing asset. After working as a secretary in a Nigerian merchant bank in the 1970s, Alakija quit her job to study fashion design in England. She subsequently founded Supreme Stitches, a Nigerian fashion label that catered to upscale clientele, which reportedly included Maryam Babangida, wife to Nigeria’s former military president Ibrahim Babangida. The government awarded her an oil-prospecting license for a 620,000-acre plot in 1993. She hired Texaco to assess the oil potential three years later, creating Famfa Oil. It went on to become OML 127, one of Nigeria’s most prolific oil blocks. Famfa Oil owned a 60% stake in the block until 2000, when then President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to take back as much as a 50% interest. Famfa Oil went to court to challenge the acquisition. The Nigerian Supreme Court reinstated the stake to Famfa Oil in May 2012; it is now the bulk of her fortune. Says Alakija of her fate: “My entry into this [oil] business was God’s own way of leading me down a particular path.”
Denise Coates struck it rich with her online gambling company (Credit: AP)
Denise Coates $1.6 Billion U.K. Self-Made Age: 46 While still in school, Coates worked for her father, Peter, as a cashier crunching numbers in his betting shops. She finished school, trained as an accountant and then took over some of those shops, turning around their fortunes before selling them to large bookmaker Coral. She had noticed the success of online gambling businesses around the time of the dot-com boom and steered her family in that direction. In 2000 she bought the domain Bet365.com and launched the website in March 2001 after being shunned by traditional venture capitalists. Today she is joint CEO (with her brother John) of online betting firm Bet365 and is by far its largest shareholder, with a 50.3% stake. Sales hit $1.6 billion last year for Bet365, which also owns British Premier League soccer team Stoke City. Her fortune comes primarily from her stake in the private betting company (based in Stoke-on-Trent) and dividends earned from over 13 years of operation.
Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer inherited her fortune from the beauty company founded by her late grandmother. (Credit: Chris Goodney/Bloomberg)
Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer $1.1 Billion U.S. inherited Age: 44 The much-watched style maven joins the rich list thanks to the surging value of her stake in the $10 billion (sales) Estée Lauder cosmetics firm, founded by her late grandmother. The elder daughter of philanthropist and World Jewish Congress leader Ronald Lauder, she now presides over her own lifestyle empire. In 2012 she launched her eponymous brand, Aerin, starting with makeup (of course) and now encompassing perfume, accessories, jewelry and even decor, fabrics and lighting for those wishing to emulate her modern Manhattan-via-East Hampton aesthetic. While the beauty line was launched in collaboration with Estée Lauder, she operates the rest as a separate company. She remains image and style director at her family’s conglomerate, where she’s worked for over two decades, starting during summer breaks from the University of Pennsylvania. Lauder often mentions her grandmother in interviews and recently tweeted a favorite saying of Estée’s: “I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.” She’s married to her college sweetheart, Eric Zinterhofer, a Harvard M.B.A. who cofounded private equity firm Searchlight Capital in 2010 after 12 years at billionaire Leon Black’s investment powerhouse, Apollo.
Jane Lauder is the youngest America billionaire, thanks to the beauty business her grandmother Estee Lauder created. (Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
Jane Lauder $1.15 Billion U.S. Inherited Age: 41 The granddaughter of cosmetics legend Estée Lauder became America’s youngest female billionaire in 2013, joining the ranks following a transfer of shares in the family cosmetics empire. In April Lauder will take the helm at Clinique, a mall-staple skin-care line and one of the 30 brands under the Estée Lauder umbrella. Her new gig as global brand president marks the culmination of 18 years at her late grandmother’s company; she joined in 1996, a year after graduating from Stanford. Before being appointed to run Clinique, she oversaw business at natural-makeup company Origins. She replaced her father, Ronald, on the Est?e Lauder board in 2009 and now serves alongside big sister Aerin and cousin William. Her husband, Kevin Warsh, also a Stanford grad, was the youngest-ever appointee to the Federal Reserve Board; he’s currently a visiting fellow at their alma mater’s Hoover Institution. The couple lives in Manhattan’s trendy Nolita.
Sandra Ortega Mera owes her wealth to the Inditex clothing retailer started by her father, Amancio Ortega. (Credit: Xurxo Lobato/Getty Images)
Sandra Ortega Mera $6.1 Billion Spain Inherited Age: 46 A daughter of Inditex clothing retailer Amancio Ortega, the world’s third-richest person, Ortega Mera enters the ranks sooner than she had hoped, taking the place of her late mother, Rosalia Mera, who died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage while on vacation with Sandra last August. Her parents, who started the apparel business in their living room, divorced long ago. While her half-sister Marta works at her father’s investment arm, Ortega Mera devotes her time to Fundaci?n Paideia, the nonprofit her mother started to support vocational training for people with mental and physical disabilities. (Her brother Marcos, who shares the fortune, has cerebral palsy.) She has a psychology degree from the Universidad de Santiago and lives in the Galician town of La Coruña, on the Atlantic coast, with her husband and three kids.
Carrie Perrodo helps oversee the fortune left to her by her late husband, French entrepreneur Hubert Perrodo (Credit: Crossroads Foundation/Flickr)
Carrie Perrodo $10 Billion France Inherited Age: 63 Singapore native Ka Yee (Carrie) Wong was already a top model when she met French entrepreneur Hubert Perrodo in the early 1970s. At the time, Perrodo was traveling the world drilling for oil and gas. Soon they got married. Sharing the entrepreneurial bug, Carrie launched her own agency, Carrie Models, while Hubert started his first business. In time Perrodo formed Perenco, which has become one of the world’s biggest family-owned oil companies, with estimated annual revenues of $6 billion and far-flung operations in the likes of Gabon, Peru and Cameroon. Hubert and Carrie enjoyed the good life; he was a keen polo player and wine lover who bought up Bordeaux vineyards, including Château Labégorce. Perrodo died in 2006 while hiking in the Alps. Carrie and her three children, François, Nathalie and Bertrand, are heirs to the company, though a breakdown of their stakes is not clear. François now chairs the company and likes to race cars. Nathalie oversees the wine investments. Carrie sold Carrie Models years ago, but the agency remains active to this day.
<bot>: The biggest group ever of new women billionaires swells their ranks to new highs, in both numbers and percentage (just over 10%). Leading the charge: a new Facebook billionaire who wants more women to follow in her shoes.
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: TAIPEI, Taiwan, Aug. 28 -- Taiwan's former security chief was indicted Thursday for allegedly covering up suspected money-laundering activities by former president Chen Shui-bian and his family.
The indictment was the latest in a series of scandals and corruption cases that have beset Chen, his family and his government aides. The allegations have tarnished Chen's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and contributed to its loss to the Nationalist Party in the presidential election in March.
The latest investigation involves $20 million allegedly wired by the former president and his wife to their daughter-in-law's Swiss bank account via accounts in other nations.
Prosecutors are seeking 2 1/2 years' imprisonment for Yeh Sheng-mao, chief of the Bureau of Investigation under Chen, for allegedly concealing documents given to his bureau by the Egmont Group, an international organization that collects data on suspicious financial activity. The Egmont documents expressed suspicion that the money wired into a Swiss bank account belonging to the daughter-in-law involved money laundering.
That the judiciary is willing to go after senior politicians such as Yeh was seen by some foreign observers as another sign of the strengthening democratization of Taiwan's political system.
Subordinates at Yeh's bureau, which deals with white-collar crime and internal security, notified Yeh when they received the Egmont documents in January and recommended that the bureau take legal action, the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
But Yeh reportedly told them the matter was so confidential and sensitive that only he was equipped to deal with it. He then concealed the documents, quashing any possible investigation, the statement said. Yeh retired at the end of Chen's second four-year term as Taiwan's president in May.
Prosecutors are investigating whether the $20 million was obtained from bribes or other corrupt means and are trying to determine if the transfer amounts to money laundering.
Chen, former first lady Wu Shu-chen and other relatives have been listed as suspects in the case and are barred from leaving the island but have not been formally indicted.
Chen earlier said the money was remitted overseas by his wife but insisted that the funds were leftover donations to political campaigns. He admitted breaking the law by not fully declaring the campaign donations but denied that any corruption was involved. Under Taiwanese law, illegally declaring campaign funds involves a stiff fine, but money laundering carries the possibility of a prison sentence.
Two years ago, prosecutors in a separate case indicted Wu on charges of embezzling $450,000 from government accounts. Chen, who lost his presidential immunity on leaving office, is now under investigation in that case.
<bot>: World news headlines from the Washington Post,including international news and opinion from Africa,North/South America,Asia,Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather,news in Spanish,interactive maps,daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Maybe it’s talking like he’s stuck on fast-forward that helps Kevin Hart squeeze in so much screen work these days. The runty, motor-mouthed comedian’s latest movie comes sandwiched between the stand-up film “Let Me Explain,” a couple of recent studio comedies, and a bevy of 2014 releases. But if all that yammering has had mixed results (it wasn’t nearly enough to ignite “Grudge Match,” for example), at least it gives a boost to the familiar buddy-cops formula of “Ride Along.”
Actually, cop-and-wannabe formula is more like it. Hart plays Ben, a school security guard and combat video game obsessive with imminent plans to marry his live-in girlfriend, Angela (Tyler Perry troupe member Tika Sumpter), and big dreams of joining the Atlanta PD. Neither idea sits well with Angela’s brother, James (top-billed Ice Cube), a truculent police detective who offers Ben a dubious chance to prove his manhood by riding shotgun with him for a day.
James ostensibly has a packed schedule, what with his dogged efforts to track down a shadowy, never-photographed crime boss named Omar. (As with any procedural, scan the opening credits for notable names, and you’ll likely crack the featured-crooks case well before the police do.) Still, there’s time enough to line up a string of humiliating nuisance calls for James’s prospective brother-in-law to handle: tangling with illegally parked lady bikers, trying to pry information from sassy playground kids, and attempting a “Cops”-worthy takedown of a honey-slathered grocery shopper gone wild. Along the way, of course, Ben happens to stumble onto a couple of clues vital to that whole Omar business. And you just know his mad gamer skills are going to come in handy too.
Hart’s clowning here is that rare case where louder is, in fact, funnier. He frets and shrilly freaks with every rookie misstep or belittling slight, and does it with such energy that it’s all pretty infectious, even when the bits are underwritten. He’s also well paired with Ice Cube, who’s got too much teddy-bear fuzz on his resume by this point to project much of an edge — not without an assist from the right counterpoint character, anyway. (Cube and castmate Laurence Fishburne are a long way from “Boyz n the Hood.”) At times things drift away from, say, “Rush Hour” and more toward “Naked Gun” silliness than director Tim Story (“Think Like a Man”) perhaps intends. But if the alternative is taking Story’s modest, effectively choreographed mayhem and piling on heaps more just for the sake of image, we’re good with silly.
<bot>: Maybe it’s talking like he’s stuck on fast-forward that helps Kevin Hart squeeze in so much screen work these days. The runty, motor-mouthed comedian’s latest movie comes sandwiched between the stand-up film “Let Me Explain,” a couple of recent studio comedies, and a bevy of 2014 releases. But if all that yammering has had mixed results (it wasn’t nearly enough to ignite “Grudge Match,” for example), at least it gives a boost to the familiar buddy-cops formula of “Ride Along.” Actually, cop-and-wannabe formula is more like it. Hart plays a security guard and combat videogame obsessive who plans to marry and become a real policeman. Neither idea sits well with his prospective brother-in-law (Ice Cube).
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
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{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Results from members showed veteran leftie has whopping 20 point lead over both Angela Eagle and Owen Smith
JEREMY Corbyn is likely to face a single challenger after his two rivals agree to field just one candidate in a bid to oust him – but poll says the Labour leader would easily beat either of them.
The results from members showed the veteran leftie has a whopping 20 point lead over both Angela Eagle and Owen Smith, after nominations in the contest opened last night.
The former shadow cabinet ministers have reached a “common understanding” about the best way to take on Mr Corbyn, who won a landslide victory last year, after wrangles over who should stand against him.
The decision will be made once it is clear who has the most nominations from the party’s MPs, after calls from senior figures for a single “unity candidate”.
But the YouGov poll for The Times shows Mr Corbyn’s support within the party’s membership remains strong – despite the resignations of scores of frontbenchers and an overwhelming vote of no confidence in his leadership from Labour MPs.
It showed if all three candidates stood, Mr Corbyn would secure 54% of the votes with Ms Eagle on 21% and Owen Smith on 15%.
But if Mr Corbyn was opposed by just Ms Eagle, some 58% would vote for the current leader and just 34% for the challenger.
The poll indicated that Mr Corbyn’s margin of victory may be slightly narrower if just Mr Smith stood against him – 56% for Mr Corbyn and 34% for Mr Smith – but the result would still be a convincing victory for the incumbent.
Crucially, the more than 1,000 members polled had all joined the Labour party before the start of 2016, the cut-off to be able to vote in the contest, meaning it can be seen as an accurate depiction of how the vote may go.
Despite the chaos in the Labour ranks, the poll of more than 1,000 party members suggested that 55% of members thought Mr Corbyn was doing well – up from 51% at the end of June.
Nominations from MPs and MEPs close at 5pm on Wednesday, but it may become clear before this time whether Mr Smith or Ms Eagle has the stronger claim to stand against Mr Corbyn.
At a hustings in Parliament Ms Eagle dodged calls by MPs to stand aside if she fails to secure the most nominations – something Mr Smith has promised to do.
But a source close to the leadership race said “productive discussions” had been held between the two contenders resulting in a common understanding.
Both candidates are “focussing on nominations which was always part of the process”, the source said.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband was among senior party figures to call for a single challenger to take on Mr Corbyn.
Speaking at an event in Parliament he told the Press Association: “I think both Angela Eagle and Owen Smith would be excellent candidates.
“So I hope that the process is found to pick one candidate.”
<bot>: JEREMY Corbyn is likely to face a single challenger after his two rivals agree to field just one candidate in a bid to oust him – but poll says the Labour leader would easily beat either of them. T…
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
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{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils became the first team in 67 years to trail 3-0 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup final and force a Game 6, and it's been 70 years since the 1941-42 Toronto Maple Leafs became the only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the final and win. But the Devils have designs on equalling the feat.
NEWARK, N.J. - Throughout his decorated career in the crease, Martin Brodeur's smile has shone through his New Jersey Devils mask.
He has been a competitor among competitors, but that doesn't mean the 40-year-old from Montreal can't have fun in good times and bad. The times weren't good last week, when Brodeur and the Devils fell behind 3-0 to the Los Angeles Kings in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final.
But as dire as the situation appeared, Brodeur kept smiling. He was buoyed by the fact his 81-year-old father Denis made the drive with his best friend, Pierre Villeneuve, from the Montreal suburb of St. Leonard to attend Game 2 eight days ago.
The elder Brodeur underwent a lengthy operation to have a baseball-sized brain tumour removed in mid-February. Yet, there he was, a few rows behind his son in the stands cheering on what may be Marty's last shot at a championship.
Denis, an old goalie himself, brought with him the Canadian sweater he wore as part of the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, where the Dutchmen captured bronze. He also showed his son an old mask he wore in the final days of his goaltending career.
The trip down memory lane was cherished by father and son, and now they may have something else to treasure if Brodeur and the Devils can pull off this remarkable comeback. A 25-save effort for a 2-1 win at home on Saturday has the Devils trailing the Kings 3-2 with Game 6 set for Los Angeles on Monday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 8 p.m. ET).
"I'm enjoying this," Brodeur said. "They're fun games to be part of. They're tough mentally to go through them because we don't have any tomorrows or anything like that. But they're fun to be part of. I've been enjoying this ride. I will until we're done."
Brodeur has remarked that he'll probably return for another season or two. But he also has stated that a prolonged lockout could dampen his spirit to continue. So we may be witnessing the last of a remarkable athlete.
Brodeur has won three Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals, four Vezina Trophies and a Calder Trophy. He is the only goalie to put together eight 40-win seasons and no netminder has played in more games (1,191), won more (656) and recorded more shutouts (163).
With his victory on Saturday, Brodeur recorded his 17th win in a Stanley Cup final to move into a tie with New York Islanders great Billy Smith on the all-time final wins list.25 - Jacques Plante, Montreal24 - Ken Dryden, Montreal21 - Turk Broda, Toronto19 - Terry Sawchuk, Detroit (17), Toronto (2)18 - Patrick Roy, Montreal (10), Colorado (8)17 - Martin Brodeur, New Jersey; Billy Smith, N.Y. Islanders
Brodeur and the Devils became the first team in 67 years to trail in a final 3-0 and force a Game 6, and it's been 70 years since the 1941-42 Toronto Maple Leafs became the only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the final and win. But the Devils have designs on equalling the feat.
"They have got the momentum now," Kings defenceman Rob Scuderi said. "It's up to us to get it back."
Brodeur will play in his 205th career playoff game on Monday and he may need to record career playoff shutout No. 25 to make sure the Devils keep the momentum.
"I think they're so close to winning the Stanley Cup that I'm sure it's getting to them a little bit, to be able to have all these chances and not capitalize on them," Brodeur said. "We're looking to just stay alive. Got to win one more game.
"We're still alive ... it's a matter of us now going into a tough environment in L.A. to try to ruin the party again."
<bot>: Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils became the first team in 67 years to trail 3-0 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup final and force a Game 6, and it's been 70 years since the 1941-42 Toronto Maple Leafs became the only team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the final
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2012061019id_/http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2012/06/brodeur-and-the-devils-out-to-spoil-las-party.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Marijuana smoking often starts during adolescence — and the timing could not be worse, a new study suggests.
Young adults who started using the drug regularly in their early teens performed significantly worse on cognitive tests assessing brain function than did subjects who were at least 16 when they started smoking, scientists reported on Monday.
The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, led researchers at McLean Hospital to surmise that the developing teenage brain may be particularly vulnerable to the ill effects of marijuana.
“We have to understand that the developing brain is not the same as the adult brain,” said Dr. Staci A. Gruber, the paper’s senior author and director of the cognitive and clinical neuroimaging section of the neuroimaging center at McLean, a Harvard-affiliated hospital in Belmont, Mass.
The study, done in conjunction with brain scans, was small, consisting of 35 chronic marijuana smokers who were 22 years old on average. Twenty had started smoking marijuana regularly before age 16, while 15 started smoking regularly at age 16 or later. All had similar levels of education and income.
The subjects were asked to complete an assessment of executive function — the brain processes responsible for planning and abstract thinking, as well as understanding rules and inhibiting inappropriate actions. The test — in which participants were asked to sort cards with different shapes, numbers and colors — is a measure of cognitive flexibility, the ability to stay focused, stick to rules and control impulsive responses. The participants who started smoking marijuana at younger ages scored significantly lower on the test than those who started smoking later in their teen years, Dr. Gruber said. They got fewer of the card-sorting categories correct and made more mistakes. They were also much more likely to repeat their mistakes, continuing to give incorrect answers even after being told that they were wrong.
<bot>: Those who began smoking before age 16 performed the worst on cognitive tests assessing brain function, researchers say.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2010111519id_/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/health/research/15marijuana.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: GLENDALE, Ariz. -- First things first. Boise State's appearance in the Fiesta Bowl will not include a marriage proposal, at least not one from Broncos' star running back Jay Ajayi.
"Sadly, I do not have that special someone," Ajayi said chuckling at the thought.
Not that it hasn't been done. In its time, the Fiesta Bowl has served as an oasis at the tip of the Sonoran desert for both Arizona and Boise State, one that has included the most memorable "she-said-yes" moment in NCAA bowl history.
Arizona won the only major bowl game in school history here by dominating Miami (Fla.) in 1994 in a game played at Sun Devil Stadium. The final was 29-0, and because of the Wildcats' impenetrable Desert Swarm defense it was not even that close.
Upstart Boise State, one of the two original BCS-busters, used a captivating 43-42 victory over Oklahoma on Jan. 1, 2007, to springboard onto the national stage. The Broncos won the game and the girl, all live on TV. Shortly after a running for a game-winning a two-point conversion in overtime, halfback Ian Johnson dashed to the sideline and on one knee proposed marriage to his cheerleader girlfriend Chrissy Popadics during a post-game interview. The NCAA sent representatives to their wedding seven months later, the better to monitor possible extra benefits.
It may be difficult for No. 10 Arizona (10-3) and No. 20 Boise State (11-2) to scale that level of remarkable on Thursday afternoon at University of Phoenix Stadium, but it will not be for a lack of trying.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
RELATED: Win or lose, Grigsby family legacy will have a happy ending.
No. 10 Arizona (10-3) vs. No. 20 Boise State (10-2)
Where: University of Phoenix Stadium
TV: ESPN (Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman, Todd McShay)
Jay Ajayi, RB, Boise State: Ajayi watched the 2007 Fiesta Bowl on YouTube and was first drawn to Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson. He soon shifted his attention to Boise State's wide-open attack, and it drew him in. Ajayi has he has been on a tear lately with 15 touchdowns of his 29 touchdowns coming in the last five games. "As the season goes on, we all started to get more comfortable in our system," Ajayi said. "You start the little extra layers of each play. You know where things can hit." Ajayi combines breakaway speed with good leverage.
Scooby Wright III, LB, Arizona: Wright has a bountiful pre-holiday season. He won the Bronko Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik awards as the nation's best defensive player and the Lombardi Award as the nation's best lineman or linebacker in a four-day flurry in the second week of December. He plays at sic-'em speed and he entered the bowl season leading the FBS in tackles for loss (27) and forced fumbles (six).
Nick Wilson, RB, Arizona: Wilson, a true freshman, had big shoes to fill in replacing Ka'Deem Carey, who left for the NFL with one year of eligibility remaining after rushing for 1,885 yards and 19 touchdowns last year. It was a comfortable fit. Wilson popped for 1,289 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns, and his big games -- 218 yards against Utah, 178 against Arizona State -- were instrumental in getting Arizona to the Pac-12 title game.
Grant Hedrick, QB, Boise State: Hedrick's superb decision-making is defined by one stat -- he is the Broncos' career leading in completion percentage at 70.1 percent, and he has been even better (72 percent) during their eight-game winning streak. He also is a threat to run, gaining 563 yards, including a school quarterback record 131 against New Mexico on Nov. 8.
Arizona appears to be a program on the rise, and with young playmakers on both sides of the ball appears to be just scratching the surface of what could be many good years to come as Rich Rodriguez fully implements his style. Even now, after a remarkable run that includes the highest winning percentage (.914) this millennium, Boise State does not have the national profile it deserves. A victory here would continue to drive that point home.
Arizona 33, Boise State 29
"I think we're trying to put Arizona back on the map," Arizona all-everything sophomore linebacker Scooby Wright III said.
A victory would give the Wildcats the second-most victories in program history, behind only Dick Tomey's 12-1 team in 1998. Boise State already has its eighth 10-win season in the last nine years and is making its 13th consecutive bowl appearance. Included was a 17-10 victory TCU in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, a game that featured two BCS-busters and matched major college unbeatens for the first (and only) time outside a de facto national championship game.
"These are exciting times at Boise State," said first-year coach Bryan Harsin, who took over for Chris Petersen when he left for Washington a year ago. "I know that our players, this is something in the past they've seen and are excited to be a part of again."
Ajayi and Wright are the headliners in a game that matches teams with impressive credentials. Arizona won its first Pac-12 South title and beat No. 2-ranked Oregon in the regular season before getting blown out in the rematch in the Pac-12 championship game. Boise State won its first Mountain West Conference title and enters with an eight-game winning streak, five on the blue, blue artificial grass of home.
Ajayi, a junior who declared for the NFL draft just before the bowl game, mentions DeMarco Murray, Matt Forte and Marshawn Lynch when asked about running backs he admires, and his numbers at this level compare favorably to what the trio did in college. Ajayi has 1,689 yards rushing and 2,225 all-purpose yards while scoring 29 touchdowns, tied with Wisconsin halfback Melvin Gordon for the most in the FBS. He has scored on a 62-yard run and 73- and 75-yard pass receptions.
"I want to have a Marshawn Lynch-style running mentality, because that guy doesn't want to be tackled by anybody," said Ajayi, who was asked if he saw Lynch's 79-yard touchdown run against the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago.
"That play was ridiculous. That's what he does, and that's why I like Marshawn Lynch so much. He just doesn't want to be stopped. He won't be stopped."
Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez, who built West Virginia into a national title contender before coming to Arizona three years ago, has compared Ajayi to former Arizona back Ka'Deem Carey, who rushed for 1,885 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2013.
Wright is a throttle-wide-open attack defender with a resume that is not dissimilar to that of former Arizona All-American Tedy Bruschi. Both are from quiet California towns north of the Bay Area, both slipped under the recruiting radar, and both became stars. Bruschi was a member of Arizona's Desert Swarm defense before winning three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
"I still have that edge," Wright said. "Nothing has changed. Going into fall camp, we said we were going to surprise a lot of people. That's what we're doing."
Anu Solomon's health: Solomon, who stepped into Arizona's starting lineup as a redshirt freshman and leads FBS freshmen with 3,458 passing yards, aggravated an ankle injury against Utah on Nov. 22 and was removed early in the Pac-12 title game against Oregon on Dec. 5. He makes the UA offense work, and his availability is crucial. He's had more than three weeks to mend.
Defensive acuity: Both defensive units can make you pay. Boise State has five defensive touchdowns, tied for No. 6 in the FBS, including four interception returns for scores. It also has scored on a punt return. Arizona has four defensive touchdowns and has scored 104 points after turnovers.
Time your trips to the refreshment stand: Arizona has scored 30 or more points eight times, and Boise State has done it 10 times.
--Boise State will hardly be in awe against a Pac-12 opponent. The Broncos are 6-3 since against Pac-12 schools since 2006. They beat Oregon in 2008 and 2009, holding the Ducks to eight points the second time.
--Arizona will play a fourth consecutive ranked opponent for the first time in school history. The Wildcats have won two (Utah and Arizona State) of previous three.
--The Pac-12 is unbeaten in three bowl games, while the Mountain West is 2-4. In the one bowl game between the two conferences, Utah blew out Colorado State 45-10 in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 20. Boise State beat Colorado State 37-24 on Sept. 6. Arizona beat Utah 42-10 on Nov. 22.
Follow Jack Magruder on Twitter
VIDEO: Wildcats have plenty to prove on national stage.
<bot>: Arizona, Boise State both looking to recapture previous magic in Wednesday's Fiesta Bowl matchup.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150102194736id_/http://www.foxsports.com:80/arizona/story/fiesta-bowl-preview-arizona-boise-state-123014 |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Venerable New York publishing house Condé Nast has seemed strangely keen to dip its stilettoed toe into the world of pornography lately.
First it scandalized the fashion world by putting Kim Kardashian, queen of the celebrity sex tape, on the cover of Vogue — and now it has released a documentary about Belle Knox, otherwise known as the Duke Porn Star. Knox, who made headlines this spring when it was revealed that she was paying her Duke University tuition by doing porn, tells Confidenti@l she’s thrilled about it.
“I’ve seen the Kim Kardashian sex tape,” said Knox, whose documentary, “Becoming Belle Knox,” is available on Condé Nast’s digital platform, TheScene.com. “I personally enjoyed her video.”
“She was just on the cover of Vogue and I think it’s good to see that barriers are being broken down and there are opportunities for people who have been in the industry to like be more mainstream,” she added.
Although Knox, whose real name is Miriam Weeks, tells us “it’s a great honor” to have worked with the famous publisher, she says she’s yet to mingle with the editors at 4 Times Square.
“It’d be awesome to meet Anna Wintour, though,” she said. “She has great style. I think it’s really cool that she’s this really powerful woman who’s a fashion and business icon. I respect that.”
Asked for her professional opinion on whether the famed editor would make a good porn star, Knox demurred. “Oh my God! No, I’m not even answering that question!” So wise.
Michael Klein, an executive at Condé Nast Entertainment, said that Knox’s raunchy story isn’t anything new for the sometimes-stuffy company. “It’s a really well-told story and in a challenging arena,” he told us. “I don’t think it’s a departure, though, from the heritage of storytelling that is Condé Nast.”
<bot>: Venerable New York publishing house Condé Nast has seemed strangely keen to dip its stilettoed toe into the world of pornography lately.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2014092119id_/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/conde-nasty-hard-knox-article-1.1946093 |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: WASHINGTON — A large share of the presidential primary season debates will not be aired on free over-the-air broadcast networks. Of the 15 primary season debates, all but five will air on cable TV.
That pattern has led Susan Crawford, a Harvard University law professor, to question whether there is something terribly wrong here. Crawford published a piece last week in Medium about the cable subscription fees necessary for interested voters to watch the debates in real time.
She said it amounts to nothing short of a poll tax.
That’s a big, bad claim in a country in which poll taxes were deployed uniformly to keep black and Latino voters away from the polls in the Deep South and Southwest in the decades before the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
And with opponents of voter ID laws describing fees associated with obtaining identification needed to vote as the most recent vintage from this same political vine, any implication that people must pay to participate in the American democratic process draws attention.
Still, in many ways the comparison is overwrought.
Cable subscription fees and the programming available represent but one route or method by which Americans can learn about the candidates, their policy ideas, their temperaments, and their talents. Americans can still read about the candidates, listen to them on the radio and, when the cable networks make it possible, stream the debates live or in the hours and days after the event actually takes place. Learning about the candidates might be an important part of participating in American democracy, but it’s the actual voting that decides who holds elected office, whose political needs and interests become policy, and whose are ignored.
Poll taxes weren’t a matter of inconvenience — some hurdle that people could clear by other means. They were an instrument of oppression, total and illegal domination of one group over others. Poll taxes quite literally impeded the ability of millions of Americans to engage in the core act of citizenship in a democracy. For some Americans, voting itself was subject to a tax.
Crawford makes some solid points about cord-cutting and the ostensibly growing share of the public that does not have cable TV. The primary process might have brought us candidates not constitutionally qualified to serve as president (like Deez Nuts).
But just one GOP debate in, the significance of debates is pretty clear.
As one analyst said before the debate, no matter how much show happens on that stage, debates are a major part of American political culture. They rank among the ways that ordinary Americans who have never been anywhere near a debate stage evaluate intellectual chops and who should even be considered for important leadership roles. That’s why there’s often a debate for 6th grade treasurer and multiple debates when you run for president.
Debates matter, and so too does access to them.
Those who got to watch the debate in real time could see quickly and clearly which candidates wilted under or seemed to manage the pressure well. They could make their own early evaluations before the punditry really began.
Those who didn’t have cable subscriptions (or the log-ins made available to cable subscribers so that they can watch cable programming online) had to wait for Fox to post the full video. And with the primary debates arranged between the interested parties — the Democrats, the Republicans, and each of the networks — it’s unlikely that anybody can make CNN or CNBC do things differently. It’s totally up to them.
There’s no question that this puts some Americans at a distinct political disadvantage.
But Crawford, the law professor, focuses much of her attention of those who have opted not to subscribe to cable on frugal principle or some sort of inherent antiestablishment, mistrustful instinct that runs strong among Millennials. Those who can not afford cable are not a big part of Crawford’s equation.
But perhaps they should be. Cable costs are climbing at a rate that far outpaces other things. The average monthly price of expanded basic service (the most common package) excluding taxes and fees, increased by 5.1 percent in 2013, to $64.41, according to a May 2014 Federal Communications Commission analysis.
By comparison, the other goods that make up the Consumer Price Index grew an average of just 1.6 percent.
Still, a quick look at a long-running Gallup survey of technology use in the United States shows that in 2005, about 68 percent of American households had cable. In 2013, the same year that that FCC report found cable rates jumped an average of 5.1. percent, that figure remained unchanged.
That’s not to say that no one is cutting the cord. In 2013, it just hadn’t outpaced the share who still subscribed or started doing so. And all of this probably brings us to the real reason that so many of the primary debates will appear on subscription cable networks this year.
Cable networks — particularly news networks wrestling with ratings free falls — would very much like for people to regard their network as a near-essential, or at least something for the concerned and informed.
<bot>: A large share of the presidential primary season debates will not be aired on free over-the-air broadcast networks. Of the 15 primary season debates, all but five will air on cable TV.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150827032056id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/business/2015/08/24/people-need-cable-watch-most-debates-that-poll-tax/BMrG5nyNgUWnJBdEyocR3I/story.html |
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: As part of the 2015 City Slide Festa, which includes electronic dance music and a DIY swimsuit fashion show, a water slide nearly a quarter of a mile long opened near downtown Seoul.
A 1,148-foot-long water slide at City Slide Festa in central Seoul is the longest water slide to be recorded in South Korea, according to local media. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
<bot>: As part of the 2015 City Slide Festa, which includes electronic dance music and a DIY swimsuit fashion show, a water slide nearly a quarter of a mile long opened near downtown Seoul.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015072119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/quarter-mile-long-water-slide-opens-in-the-middle-of-seoul/2015/07/19/c641aa66-2e40-11e5-97ae-30a30cca95d7_gallery.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: The crisis in Libya has revived the partisan debate in Washington over energy production, with Democrats and Republicans drifting to familiar arguments as they try to figure out a solution to rising oil prices.
A Libyan diplomat reportedly said Friday that the country, which accounts for about 2 percent of the world's crude oil exports, will stop exporting oil while the unrest persists. The United States isn't as dependent on Libyan oil as other parts of the world, but the country still provides thousands of barrels per day to the United States.
As protesters clash with forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, the price of crude oil worldwide has risen significantly -- by about $11 a barrel from a week ago.
The impact at the pump has so far been slight, but with gas prices already on the rise, lawmakers in the past two days have started pressuring the Obama administration to do something.
Democrats are calling for a short-term, immediate fix -- tapping into America's oil reserves. They also urged the president to do more to encourage the development of "clean-energy alternatives."
Republicans, on the other end, used the Libya crisis as another example of why the United States should expand domestic drilling.
"Americans are feeling the pain at the pump as gasoline prices climb towards four dollars a gallon. Tapping the (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) may provide some temporary relief but we must consider America's long-term energy security," Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. "Short-term releases of oil from our strategic reserves does not replace the 300,000 barrels a day this administration has squandered due to inaction on offshore drilling permits, nor will it put the thousands of people in the Gulf back to work."
The Obama administration has shown little interest in expanding domestic drilling since the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration last fall lifted a deepwater drilling ban it put in place after the spill, but some want the permitting process sped up. The Interior Department also announced it would ban for at least seven years any new drilling in the eastern Gulf and off the East Coast.
Hastings said the nation could insulate itself against spikes by expanding into the Gulf, Alaska, the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere.
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Thursday renewed an uphill push to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, citing the unrest in the Middle East. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell also made the case for Alaska oil exploration and production during a speech Friday in Washington, D.C.
"No doubt, the turmoil in the Middle East has had an impact on the recent spikes in energy prices, but the fact of the matter remains that this administration's recklessly imposed barriers to American oil and natural gas undermines our economy and encourages our dependence on foreign imports," House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., said.
But Democrats say better fuel economy and alternative-energy investment will insulate the market from foreign oil disruptions. And in the short-term, they pushed the administration to open the petroleum reserve. A group of Democrats wrote to President Obama Thursday urging him to release even a small portion of the 727-million-barrel reserve, saying it could have a large impact on petroleum prices in the United States.
"As we approach the summer driving season, we must carefully consider all immediate options in order to prevent the runaway increase in prices that we saw in the summer of 2008," Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; and Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in the letter. "We therefore urge you to consider leveraging the SPR to respond to these supply disruptions and combat the rapid price escalations resulting from rampant speculation in the oil markets."
Daniel Weiss, a director of climate strategy at the liberal Center for American Progress, also wrote in a USA Today column Friday that "drill, baby, drill" will not suffice.
"Unrest in Libya and Egypt is driving up oil prices, stirring concerns that gasoline could hit $5 a gallon by summer. Like a smoker's persistent cough, it's another warning to change our ways," Weiss wrote. Weiss said new drilling would take years to yield anything from the Gulf and sided with the clean-energy suggestions made by Democrats in the letter to Obama. Weiss also said Obama should sell 30 million barrels from the reserve if Mideast turmoil drives the price of gas to $4 a gallon.
"Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton sold reserve oil to lower prices and reduce the deficit," Weiss wrote.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, reacting to the Democrats' letter, said Thursday that the administration has "the capacity to act" but is currently just monitoring the situation.
The price of gas has been rising steadily, though it has not spiked as much as the per-barrel price of oil. An average gallon of gas costs $3.29, compared with $3.16 a week ago and $2.69 a year ago.
Obama pushed to invest in clean-energy technology during his first two years in office. The movement comes as domestic oil production has fallen, from about 10 million barrels a day just a few decades ago to about 5 million a day.
<bot>: The crisis in Libya has revived the partisan debate in Washington over energy production, with Democrats and Republicans drifting to familiar arguments as they try to figure out a solution to rising oil prices.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2011022519id_/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/25/libya-crisis-fuels-washington-debate-energy-production-prices-rise/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Updated OCT 13, 2014 5:14a ET
Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers joked that he spotted Dan Marino at halftime of Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins.
Little did anyone know -- Rodgers included -- that he would be deploying the legendary quarterback's renowned "fake spike" to help defeat the team that made it famous.
Almost two decades after Marino used the same chicanery to fool the New York Jets before throwing for a game-winning score, Rodgers unveiled his own version against a sleeping Dolphins defense. His 12-yard completion to rookie wide receiver Davante Adams put Rodgers in position to fire a four-yard touchdown pass to tight end Andrew Quarless with three seconds remaining, giving Green Bay a 27-24 comeback win at Sun Life Stadium.
The two plays capped a 60-yard drive Rodgers directed without timeouts (although the Dolphins took two of them trying -- and ultimately failing -- to ensure their defensive personnel was in the right place). Rodgers also had to convert on a fourth-and-10 by hitting wide receiver Jordy Nelson for 18 yards despite having Dolphins linebacker Olivier Vernon in his face on a fierce pass rush.
Rodgers was sacked three times and pummeled so many times that his back was covered with welts and bruises. He still completed 24 of 42 passes for 264 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions as Green Bay (4-2) won its third straight game.
"He's orchestrating the way he does every week," Adams said of Rodgers on Green Bay's final series. "He was calm, cool and collected but demanding of us, too. I think that's what brings out the best in us."
The "clock play" is an example of that, particularly when it pertains to Adams. The second-round draft pick had missed an important pre-snap signal from Rodgers during a Week 3 loss to Detroit.
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Adams made sure not to disappoint his quarterback twice.
Most Packers players on the field expected Rodgers to spike the football with about 15 seconds remaining. Rodgers added to the subterfuge by yelling "clock" while noticing that Dolphins cornerback Cortland Finnegan was "way off" Adams on the right sideline.
Rodgers subtly got Adams' attention before engaging in some of what he playfully described as "freestyling."
"Davante wasn't looking at me initially," Rodgers said. "But after he saw me moving he looked and I threw it. I was hoping he knew to just get a couple (yards) and get out of bounds but he almost ended up scoring."
Dolphins cornerback Cortland Finnegan awoke from his stupor in time to push Adams out of bounds, but not before the damage was done.
"That's usually how it is when you see the other team about to spike the ball," said Adams, who had the savvy not to turn inside to try to score knowing time would expire if he was tackled inbounds. "You're not going to be all tense.
"[Finnegan] was a little off. I wouldn't say he was lackadaisical because most people would do the same thing. That's why we took advantage of it."
The next Dolphins defender to get victimized was linebacker Phillip Wheeler, who got matched in coverage against Wheeler as the outside target in a four-receiver set. Rodgers took the snap and immediately rifled the football to Quarless, who was given ample cushion by Wheeler to make the catch uncontested.
"Once I turned my head the ball was there," Quarless said. "I was the second option if (Rodgers) didn't audible. I'm going to stay in his ear saying, 'Let's work these linebackers.' Once we saw they had a linebacker on us, the rest is history."
Rodgers made some personal history in his 100th career NFL start. It was not only his first road start against the Dolphins but Rodgers cracked it was the first time he had won a start in the state of Florida after three 2008 and 2009 losses to Tampa Bay and Jacksonville.
"I would like to play at least another hundred," a smiling Rodgers said.
Those aren't the words an opposing defense should want to hear as Rodgers continues to build a resume that will allow him to someday join Marino in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
When it's time, of course.
<bot>: The Green Bay quarterback used Marino's old trick to beat the Dolphins. Somewhere, even Jets fans had to smile.
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<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Tuesday backed legislative efforts to create a new market for financing mortgages that would help wean the $10.6 trillion United States mortgage market from government support.
Mr. Geithner said he endorsed efforts to create a market for covered bonds, which are securities issued by banks and backed by pools of loans. The loans underlying covered bonds remain on the issuer’s balance sheet.
That is different from the current mortgage system, in which lenders sell many of the loans they make to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which then repackage them as securities for investors.
“We would support legislation that would help create better conditions for a covered bond market,” Mr. Geithner told the Senate Banking Committee in response to a question from Senator Charles E. Schumer.
Representative Scott Garrett, Republican of New Jersey, a strong proponent of covered bonds, last week called advocates of the idea to testify to a House panel he heads. He thinks a covered bond market could reduce the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Mr. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said he was considering introducing a Senate version of Mr. Garrett’s bill.
The government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008 as losses on the loans they held spiraled. The government, through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, now backs almost nine in 10 new mortgages.
In Europe, covered bonds have long been in use. But they have failed to catch on in the United States.
In a covered bond system, banks can borrow against the value of the underlying mortgages to obtain fresh capital to extend further loans. The bond investors have the right to those underlying assets in the case of a bank default.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has warned that a covered bond system could put its bank deposit insurance fund at increased risk for losses because the investors would have seniority over the agency in the event of default.
Mr. Geithner said such concerns were legitimate and would have to be worked out.
“For this to work, you would be putting the taxpayer in some sense behind private investors, and that has its own consequences, but that is something we can work through and I think it can play a greater role in our system,” Mr. Geithner said.
The White House and Congress are in a major policy debate on how to overhaul the finance system for buying homes, which collapsed in 2008.
The Obama administration last month announced several steps to make those government-backed mortgages more expensive in a bid to lure private capital back to the mortgage market.
It also announced plans to phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over time and presented Congress with three options for replacing them in the long term.
Mr. Geithner cautioned Congress not to act too quickly because the battered housing market was still fragile, but said he would like to see changes in place within two years.
“Haste would be counterproductive — possibly destabilizing the housing finance market or even disrupting the broader recovery,” he said.
<bot>: In testimony to a Senate panel, the Treasury secretary endorsed a plan for bonds backed by pools of loans that would remain on the issuerâs books.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2011031519id_/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/business/16housing.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: TOKYO—Parliament on Tuesday passed an extra spending package to get Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic-revival plan back on track, but the Japanese leader is already facing calls to do more.
A leading Abe adviser and some economists say the Bank of Japan is essentially offering unlimited funds to the government interest-free, and he shouldn’t let the opportunity pass. Opponents of that idea say issuing more debt to finance more...
<bot>: Parliament passed a $32 billion package of extra spending to get Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic-revival plan back on track, but the Japanese leader is already facing calls to do more.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2016101119id_/http://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-passes-32-billion-in-extra-economic-stimulus-but-some-seek-more-1476181834 |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Update | 4:17 p.m. JPMorgan Chase and nine other big banks said Wednesday that they had repaid the federal assistance money that they received in the fall during the height of the financial crisis.
JPMorgan said it had returned $25 billion, with interest, to the government — money that the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has said it never needed in the first place.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs said in separate announcements that they had each repaid their $10 billion in federal aid, joining a parade of financial institutions making their exit from the government rescue program.
By late Wednesday afternoon, all 10 banks allowed to exit the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program had said they had repaid the TARP money. Among them, American Express returned $3.39 billion, Bank of New York Mellon $3 billion, Capital One Financial $3.57 billion, State Street $2 billion and Northern Trust $1.58 billion.
Earlier in the day, BB&T and U.S. Bancorp said they had repaid $3.1 billion and $6.6 billion, respectively, in government bailout money.
These 10 banks were informed by regulators last week that they were considered financially stable enough to return the government’s money.
As the chaos from the financial crisis has subsided, many banks have become eager to throw back the government’s lifeline — partly as a sign of strength, but also to rid themselves of the additional oversight, including curbs on executive pay, that came with it.
Taxpayers received dividends on their investment in these banks. In the case of JPMorgan, the total dividends amounted to about $795 million, JPMorgan said Wednesday. Goldman said it paid a one-time dividend of $425 million on its preferred stock.
BB&T’s announcement put its total dividends at $92.7 million. The company’s chief executive, Kelly King, called the TARP infusion an “excellent investment for the American taxpayer.”
JPMorgan’s announcement was short, and it didn’t include any comment from the firm’s chief executive, Mr. Dimon, who has publicly referred to the TARP as a “scarlet letter” and criticized some of the strings that were attached to the program.
But earlier this month, Mr. Dimon commented on the company’s plan to repay the TARP money in a memo to JPMorgan employees.
“We accepted TARP funding because we believed it was in the best interests of our financial system and our country, even though our company did not need the capital,” he said in the memo.” But now as markets have begun to stabilize, we believe that it is best for strong and well-capitalized institutions like ours to pay back these funds early to the hard-working American taxpayers whose money was used for TARP.”
In its statement, Morgan Stanley said Wednesday that it and its employees “appreciate the support of the U.S. government, Congress and the administration during this challenging period.”
To exit the program completely, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and the other banks will also need to repurchase the Treasury’s warrants to buy their common stock. JPMorgan said it would notify the Treasury of its intent to buy back the warrants, though it didn’t indicate a price.
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<bot>: <strong>JPMorgan Chase</strong> and nine other big banks said they had repaid the federal assistance money that they had received during the height of the financial crisis.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2009061719id_/http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/jpmorgan-repays-treasury-as-tarp-exits-continue/index.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Updated FEB 17, 2014 7:49a ET
MINNEAPOLIS -- Cuddly, adorable and heartwarming.
Probably not the first three descriptors you'd associate with Nikola Pekovic. But thanks to the Timberwolves' latest video venture, the 6-foot-11, 285-pound center has a canine counterpart that looks just a little more friendly.
The team released Thursday a video featuring "Timberpuppies" -- a 3 minute, 3 second montage of months-old dogs pushing around a miniature basketball on a miniature court. Each one is named for one of Minnesota's starters, including "Puppy Pekovic" and "Puppy Love" for Kevin Love.
Now, the trick is getting enough other franchises on board to start an entire league of puppy-only teams, and hire a commissioner (the local pound might be a good place to look), draft a collective bargaining agreement that includes plenty of Purina in each players' salary and start scouting the Humane Society for future talent.
Air Bud, you've met your matches.
Follow Phil Ervin on Twitter
<bot>: The Minnesota Timberwolves video features cuddly canine versions of the team's star players.
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<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2014021719id_/http://msn.foxsports.com/north/story/timberpuppies-combines-puppies-and-basketball-with-adorable-result-021614 |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: By: Chris Chase | October 16, 2015 1:10 pm
NBC’s Rodney Harrison is not one short of opinions or, during his playing days, 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. However, Harrison did sort of see this whole Robert Griffin III thing coming in Washington, long before most people did, and it’s for one simple reason: He thinks RG3 is a jerk.
Here’s Harrison, talking about the Redskins quarterback situation and Griffin in particular, to the Spiegel and Goff show (via the DC Sports Bog):
“Well first and foremost, we see every week that there’s a lot of bad quarterback play, so I think we’re used to that. What we don’t see is guys being jerks at the quarterback position. And Robert Griffin III was a jerk. He was a flat-out jerk. And when you look at Kirk Cousins, he comes and he says all the right things. And he’s trying, he’s fighting, his team is out there supporting him, he’s doing everything he can to win.
“We understand that you’re not going to be Tom Brady, you’re not a future Hall of Famer. But I think we do respect that a guy’s out there fighting. You look at [Josh] McCown for the Cleveland Browns; he didn’t play particularly well a couple weeks ago, he comes back and throws for [457] yards or whatever it was. But I think we respect guys that work hard and try to do the right thing and stay humble. Robert Griffin didn’t do that, and he lost the respect of his teammates, as well as the guys in the media.”
Okay, first off, this is Rodney Harrison talking, a guy who was like the Vermeer of cheap shots. Come on, now. Second, if you’re going to call Griffin a jerk, you have to give examples. What kind of jerk are we talking? Clearly he’s not a jerk to fans. They all loved him. So how what was it about RJerk3? Would he run up to teammates and give them dead legs during team meetings? Does he flip off the lights in the bathroom when dudes were occupying it or flush the toilets when people are taking hot showers? Does he steal the last shopping cart at Target from little old ladies? We need concrete examples because coming up with slogans is loser behavior, not jerky behavior.
So then I was trying to prove Harrison wrong, to think of great quarterbacks who were jerks. But after looking at a solid list of the best QBs in recent history (by career yardage) Harrison seems to be right.
I mean, some of those guys may have had big egos (Marino) or had problems in their careers (Collins) or were in too many Wrangler Jeans commercials (Favre) but none of them seemed like jerks to teammates. Some of those guys may have been jerks off the field, but they all seemed to command respect on it. So, as Harrison implies, playing quarterback clearly isn’t like playing with Michael Jordan, where MJ’s jerkitude (should be a word) made teammates better. And being QB isn’t like other positions where being a jerk (such as wide receiver or the positions Rodney Harrison played) maybe makes you better. You want a selfish receiver. You want a defensive back who will give a love tap to a guy running over the middle. But quarterbacks? Maybe acting humble and working hard is the key to winning a locker room.
<bot>: Strong words from, again, RODNEY HARRISON.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015101719id_/http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/10/rg3-jerk-robert-griffin-iii-rodney-harrison-nbc-sunday-night-football/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Coasters are getting ever bigger and scary -- Going.
Incredibly fast turning you upside down looping around.
And always than it was coasters have the longest lines it's good to find -- those less than 55 miles per hour -- beginning.
Ride and move up to the big -- you know you don't have to start the day with the and it's.
Turning around like six times you're -- coasters.
Team Dolly -- team's Six Flags to Williamsburg Busch Gardens so wherever you go you're gonna.
Comparatively -- many people who -- them there are very few injuries.
On them as long as you do -- they tell you did you keep your hands and keep your feet and don't -- that height requirements.
I wouldn't suggest writing -- coasters where you're gonna leave around four times right after you patent aunts and I would only take the health guidelines seriously.
If they say if you backed issues through your pregnant don't -- the coasters the I'll be there next here.
The Coney Island -- Is -- in the oldest wooden coasters in the world the fun thing to do wherever you're going and riding a coaster might be.
To look it up before he -- sometimes you can even take a virtual war on line.
And show the kids and the science and this -- actually goes into building a coaster.
And let them see how much effort goes into making one so that when they -- more appreciation.
<bot>: An up-close look at the country's scariest, highest, steepest and most unique roller coasters
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2012060619id_/http://video.foxnews.com/v/1677075662001/americas-top-roller-coasters |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Evan Lehmann of Climatewire reports:
With White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's departure, President Obama is turning to the journeyman sage who helped acquaint him with the nuances of energy policy as a new senator in Washington. Now he might steer a splintered debate on climate.
Pete Rouse is part strategist, part Buddha, say those who know him. As incoming chief of staff, his well-worn relationships in Congress and relaxed attitude could be valuable for a president facing a larger force of Republican lawmakers following midterm elections, according to former colleagues.
This is the second time Rouse will lead Obama's team. In 2004, when he signed on as Obama's Senate chief of staff, Rouse helped coordinate energy roundtables to get the rookie senator up to speed, one former Senate energy adviser said. Obama was briefed by experts on energy security and on fuels and their impacts on the atmosphere.
"In terms of people who understand energy policy in the West Wing, he is very knowledgeable in the area and has a good sense of Congress," the adviser said.
Rouse served as former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's (D-S.D.) chief of staff for 19 years, and oversaw the swashbuckling attempts in the early and mid-2000s to pass massive energy bills that promoted ethanol, early carbon sequestration and studies on climate change.
Now Rouse might be thrust back toward those issues. The changeover comes as Obama is pledging to pursue legislation next year that will chip away at climate change by reducing emissions through the development of clean energy. Some believe Rouse might be better-suited for it than Emanuel.
"They both have, you know, good working knowledge of energy policy and environmental policy," the adviser said. "But I would say Pete has focused [and] worked on these issues longer than Rahm Emanuel has."
Copyright 2010 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
For more on energy and environment, go to www.climatewire.net.
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<bot>: Emanuel's replacement could calm climate debate - Green House - USATODAY.com
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A... well, folks are unlikely to start chanting in the streets over the news, but a U.S. high school team took top honors Friday in a rocket contest at the Paris Air Show.
The Rockwall-Heath High School from Heath, Texas, out-flew other teams asked to launch a rocket 750 feet skyward and safely return a payload, a raw egg, by parachute.
"We knew we had a great design and had calculated the variables, but until you shoot the rocket you can't really be sure," said Rockwall-Heath Team president John Easum, in a statement. "What a way to end our team experience."
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<bot>: U.S. High School team wins Paris rocket contest - Science Fair: Science and Space News - USATODAY.com
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<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2011062519id_/http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/06/us-high-school-team-wins-paris-rocket-contest/1 |
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A U.S. missionary should spend six months in prison for her failed attempt to remove 33 children from Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake, a prosecutor said Thursday on the first day of her trial.
Prosecutor Sonel Jean-Francois told the court that Laura Silsby knew she was breaking the law by trying to take the children without proper documents to an orphanage she was starting in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
"Laura recognized she violated the law," Jean-Francois said as lawyers and a small group of spectators crowded into a a stiflingly hot tent in the parking lot of the quake-damaged courthouse.
He spoke after the Idaho woman testified. Silsby, who was leader of a group of Baptists detained by authorities, was the only person to testify on the first day of the trial. She spent much of the rest of the session reading the Bible.
The 40-year-old businesswoman told the court she thought the children were orphans whose homes were destroyed in the earthquake. An Associated Press investigation later revealed all the children had at least one living parent, who had turned their children over to the group in hopes of securing better lives for them.
"One week after the earthquake I left my family and my home to help children that had been orphaned in the earthquake," Silsby said. "We came here with a heart to help."
Silsby was originally charged with kidnapping and criminal association. She now faces one count of arranging illegal travel under a 1980 statute restricting travel out of Haiti signed by then-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.
A six-month sentence is the minimum jail time recommended under the law. She would receive credit for time served if convicted and sentenced to prison, prosecutors told the AP.
Silsby has been in custody since Jan. 29, when she and nine other Americans were detained at the Dominican border. The other missionaries have all been released and charges against them dismissed.
A defense request for her to be released immediately was denied.
Prosecutors also asked for six months in prison for Jean Sainvil, an Atlanta-based pastor born in Haiti who allegedly helped find the children for the missionaries. He is not in Haiti and is being tried in absentia.
The next session of the trial is expected next week.
The Americans' arrest came as the Haitian government was trying to control adoptions to prevent the trafficking of children after the earthquake, which killed a government-estimated 230,000 to 300,000 people and left some 1.3 million homeless.
Silsby sat quietly through Thursday's proceedings, dressed in a black shirt and denim skirt, while her Haitian lawyers argued with the prosecution. Hers was the only foreign face in the room other than AP journalists. Three men arrested for other crimes sat behind her in handcuffs.
The argument came down to a simple point on both sides:
Prosecutors said she knowingly took children to the border without papers.
"If the United States had an earthquake, that would not give you the right to take children," Jean-Francois said.
The defense responded in an often rambling address that Silsby was trying to help earthquake survivors under societal breakdown, with bodies in the street and government ministries destroyed.
"Why take the chance away from Haitian kids to have an opportunity for a better life?" asked lawyer Jean-Rene Tesir.
Silsby's testimony came early in the trial, given as she stood beside the desk of Judge Denis Cyprien. She spoke calmly in a low voice, choking back tears when she talked about the children she tried to transport, as a clerk rang a tin bell for order.
She identified her occupation as "manager of an orphanage," referring to the institution she had hoped to create in the northern Dominican Republic. There are no kids there; the children she tried to transport have been returned to their parents.
Sometimes Silsby spoke so quietly that the translator couldn't hear her. After she muttered her address twice, he shrugged and said in Creole to the clerk transcribing proceedings by hand, "somewhere in the United States."
In another strange moment he translated a judge's question as "Did you appreciate being arrested?"
The missionary told the judge that she met the children for the first time in front of a flattened building and described being turned away from closed government ministries in her attempt to get them documents.
"They said there was nobody there to help me," Silsby said.
Associated Press writer Evens Sanon contributed to this story
<bot>: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian prosecutors say a U.S. missionary should spend 6 months in prison for trying to take 33 children out of the country following the Jan. 12 earthquake.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2010051319id_/http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/13/haiti-prosecutors-seek-months-prison-woman-tried-remove-kids-quake-1947670658/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Tristan Thompson’s ex-girlfriend Jordan Craig celebrated her baby shower Sunday, and the model took to Instagram to share a stunning snap from the celebration — which also marks the first time Craig has confirmed her pregnancy on social media.
“Although watching and feeling you grow everyday has made my pregnancy such an unforgettable, magical experience … words cannot express how anxious and excited I am to finally meet you!” Craig captioned a video of herself cradling her baby belly, wearing a plunging gold gown and posing in front of the waterfront setup. “Mommy loves you so much. Muah-Muah-Muah!!!!”
Craig added the hashtags: “Mommy2BeJordyC” and “CountingDownTheDays.”
Craig also tweeted about the baby shower, gushing that it was the “happiest day” of her life.
“I truly have the most amazing parents, family & friends in the world!” she wrote. #AlliNeed CountingDownTheDays.”
Craig’s cousin Eniko (Parrish) Hart, who is married to comedian Kevin Hart, also took to Instagram to share a photo from the celebration.
“Congrats to the#Mommy2BeJordyC you’re going to be an amazinggggg mommy! (It runs in the family),” she wrote. “I [can’t] wait to finally meet him. blessings to you and your new bundle of joy! xOxO.”
Several of Craig’s friends and family members took to social media to share photos and videos of the shower — also revealing that Craig is expecting a boy, whom they referred to as “Prince Oliver.”
Craig’s sister shared a sunset snap of the two, confirming that the expectant model is 8 months pregnant.
Craig’s ex-boyfriend Thompson, 25, is currently dating Khloé Kardashian, 32. The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star and Cleveland Cavaliers player Thompson were first linked in early September after they were spotted house hunting together.
In the weeks that followed, the two hit the town in Los Angeles for a comedy show, vacationed in Mexico over Labor Day weekend, smooched on Snapchat and cuddled up at a Drake concert.
“They’re really cute,” Kardashian’s mother Kris Jenner told reporters at an event last month. “You know, she’s having a good time, he seems like a really nice guy.”
RELATED VIDEO: Khloé Kardashian and Tristan Thompson Share Steamy Social Media Kiss
Kardashian and the NBA star also enjoyed a romantic weekend in Miami a few weeks ago.
“She’s really happy with him and they’re still having a good time together,” a source told PEOPLE at the time. “Things are going well between them and progressing.”
Keeping Up with the Kardashians returns Oct. 23 on E!
<bot>: Tristant Thompson is currently dating Khloé Kardashian
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2016101019id_/http://people.com/sports/khloe-kardashian-boyfriend-tristan-thompson-ex-celebrates-baby-shower/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Neither “Wolf Hall” nor “Bring Up the Bodies” is the Hilary Mantel book most relevant to “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher,” her new volume of short stories. Instead, the germane book is her 2003 memoir, “Giving Up the Ghost.” That book describes a woman who is passive, illness-plagued and spooked. The narrators of these stories are much more like Ms. Mantel’s description of herself than like the ironclad Machiavellians who dominate her Thomas Cromwell trilogy-in-progress.
Set in recent times, this new book’s stories have narrators much more outwardly meek and inwardly turbulent than the murderous royals and puppeteers so beloved in her historical fiction. Though it’s tempting to begin any discussion of this book with the barnburner of a title story, the only brand-new one here, the collection kicks off with a tale too exemplary of this timid-narrator style to ignore.
The book’s opener is “Sorry to Disturb,” though it was first published as “Someone to Disturb” and billed as a memoir in the London Review of Books in 2009; that small title change heightens the faux meekness. In any case, the piece uses the autobiographical fact that Ms. Mantel once lived in Saudi Arabia as the wife of a geologist, at a time when being the wife of any foreigner was an unhappy plight.
The narrator is heavily medicated, as Ms. Mantel had been, because of some undescribed illness. (Ms. Mantel’s turned out to be severe endometriosis, which led to major surgery and an irrevocable change in her appearance; she went from sylph-thin to heavy as a result of drugs that also made her generally miserable.) And the character is terribly lonely. But as the story begins, a not-bad-looking Pakistani stranger knocks on her door, asking to use the phone. Whether out of desire or curiosity or some benighted idea of the obligations of Britain to its long-lost empire, she lets him in, and then lets him in again the next day. Though she doesn’t realize it — we do — she is desperate for someone, anyone, to change her life.
The story, with a title now made more apologetic, speaks to a deep yearning in this woman and a dangerous flippancy in her visitor. He turns out to be married to an American woman whom he plans to ditch, and regards his new English conquest as a catch worth flaunting. It’s not the plot that matters as much as the superb little touches with which Ms. Mantel punctuates it. The woman’s study of Arabic is a marvel in its own right: She divides her time between memorizing phrases and vacuuming up the ubiquitous cockroaches in an apartment that has doors that remind her of a coffin. “Nineteenth Lesson: Are you married? Yes, my wife is with me, she’s standing there in the corner of the room.” And she conflates this with the squirmy thought of roaches in the vacuum cleaner bag.
Some of the stories here are short and very slight. “Comma,” about the brief tormenting of an invalid by a mad, violent child, and “The Long QT,” a pitch-black joke about one quick way to end a marriage, are barely vignettes. “Winter Break” is a brief bit of ghoulishness about a vacation from hell, and “The Heart Fails Without Warning” is about two sisters, teasingly close, though one is on the brink of starving to death. “Terminus” is an outright ghost story, with no real twist; “Harley Street” is evidence that Ms. Mantel knows her way around vampires, especially those who pretend to be normal medical personnel. The story is narrated by a newcomer to the vampire-run clinic who doesn’t see why steak tartare at a restaurant elicits such a strong response from a colleague.
And “How Shall I Know You?,” one of only a few fully formed stories in this collection, might have been called “The Author’s Revenge.” It is discreetly savage payback for every dismal 15-seat author’s appearance and night at a terrible hotel Ms. Mantel must have put in during her lean years. Feeling vengeful, the author in the story confounds one audience by saying, “Why don’t you call me Rose?” Of course, Rose is not her name.
Finally, the pièce de résistance. “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher” allows Ms. Mantel to transform a convenient coincidence in her own life into an opportunistic political fantasy. Ms. Mantel lived in Windsor, England, when Thatcher had eye surgery at a hospital there, and Ms. Mantel’s window had an unobstructed view of the hospital entrance. Thus a simple, murderous “What if?” from the author becomes a work of displaced animosity connecting an innocent woman minding her own business at home with a wish-fulfilling assassin for the Irish Republican Army. Arriving in the guise of a plumber sent to fix the woman’s boiler, the assassin commandeers her apartment and makes her his prisoner.
Not that the woman minds this one bit. She hates Thatcher as much as the assassin does, and they engage in a spirited dialogue about whether Irish ancestry counts as serious political commitment or if that’s just malarkey. (“I don’t care about the songs your great-uncles used to sing on a Saturday night,” he tells her.) The story is set in 1983, and Ms. Mantel has said it took her a long time to get it to a full boil — which it has certainly reached, if the early reaction of Thatcherite British politicians is any indication.
Regardless, the woman in the apartment pulls no punches about her complete sympathy for the assassin and her own hatred for Thatcher. “She sleeps four hours a day,” she says. “She lives on the fumes of whiskey and the iron in the blood of her prey.” Perhaps she is having the eye operation because she is incapable of producing natural tears.
Because these stories lack the absolute toughness of the Cromwell books, and because they rely on a spiritual dimension that amounts to a narrative escape hatch, Ms. Mantel includes a passage about why events that might have changed history, like the assassination of Margaret Thatcher, exist in a netherworld where they either did or didn’t happen. “History could always have been otherwise,” she writes. Long story short: Ms. Mantel can’t kill off Margaret Thatcher. But it is not a matter of bloodthirstiness to wish Ms. Mantel were as firm here as she is in her best books, which require no dodging for their historical narratives, and which so brilliantly amplify what is already known.
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER
242 pages. A John Macrae Book/Henry Holt & Company. $27.
<bot>: “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher” is Hilary Mantel’s latest short story collection.
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<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2014092519id_/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/books/the-assassination-of-margaret-thatcher-by-hilary-mantel.html |
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<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Friday night, a P.R. flack named Justine Sacco tweeted a tasteless joke as she was boarding a flight. It read: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding! I'm white."
In this modern world where bullying is condemned by famous names and faces, the true definition of bullying is sensing an opening and taking it. - Greg Gutfeld
The blog BuzzFeed tweeted it as the worst feed of all time and as Sacco took off, she was completely unaware that down below on Earth, her world was disappearing. When she arrived in South Africa, like 12 hours later, she's already been fired, unaware, all without a single chance to defend herself. Countless articles had already been cataloguing her demise as Internet mobs cheered.
In this modern world where bullying is condemned by famous names and faces, the true definition of bullying is sensing an opening and taking it. Many did.
Now did her tweet require firing? Probably. I thought it was a commentary at how bad blacks have it when it comes to AIDS. But she's in P.R., so she should probably know better. I'm sure if a left-wing comic has said this, though, many would have chuckled.
But, look, you don't need pitchforks to form a mob, just a jaunty blood thirst and an ignorance that you could be next. Watching the Web, waiting for Justine to land as they knitted a noose, I came to one conclusion: When left to their own devices, literally, humans are creeps.
<bot>: Friday night, a P.R
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2013122519id_/http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/the-five/article/2013/12/23/gutfeld-should-you-be-fired-tasteless-tweet |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: The Angels left for London at the JFK Airport. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show takes place Tuesday in London (it airs on CBS the following Tuesday). But before the Angels pose on the runway, they had to take a few selfies from a different runway: a plane runway. The girls flew from JFK Airport Sunday to the U.K..
Adriana Lima, Behati Prinsloo and Alessandra Ambrosio get in the shot. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
The next day, it was time for more pre-show posing. The ladies stood in front of the Bond Street store in London:
Taylor Swift, who’s performing at the Fashion Show, is also in town.
<bot>: Spoiler: We're talking a plane runway, on their way to the London Fashion Show.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2014120119id_/http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2014/12/01/victorias-secret-fashion-show/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: The Night Manager 10 p.m., AMC
The John le Carre movies have been pretty good, including “The Tailor of Panama,” “The Constant Gardner,” and the 2011 version of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” But le Carre stories are rich enough to open up into miniseries, and AMC’s “The Night Manager” proves that once again. It’s a really enjoyable adaptation, and none of the six episodes feels like filler.
Some hardcore le Carre fans might find “The Night Manager” a little too James Bond-ish, and a little lacking in challenging, ironic resolutions. But as a lively, beautifully filmed miniseries, it’s perfectly entertaining.
It helps that there are a few good, layered performances in the British import, most of all by Hugh Laurie as bad guy Richard Roper, arms dealer and all-round billionaire creep. On the surface, he is all civilized calm and charm. Underneath, he’s ruthless, greedy, and abusive. In a way, he’s the opposite of Laurie’s best-known role, Dr. House, whose gruff exterior masked a life-saving genius.
Tom Hiddleston is fine – if a little shallow – as the hotel night manager, Jonathan Pine, who is recruited by the British government to spy and winds up going undercover in Roper’s entourage. Pine is beautiful and clever, and it seems as though Roper is going to trust him. As they visit glorious locations together, including Majorca, Pine gets to insinuate himself into Roper’s circle and get a pretty tan in the process.
<bot>: John le Carre stories are rich enough to open up into miniseries, and AMC’s “The Night Manager” proves that once again.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160430114209id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/television/2016/04/24/night-manager-fitting-miniseries/fi3h85sCrMhBRPM6cbsnZM/story.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Saturday, September 6th 2008, 4:00 AM
Holland America's Oosterdam cruising near Hubbard Glacier.
I was "Born to Be Wild." Well, maybe not. But I can now say I've been on a hog - in Alaska.
Cruising Alaska - in this case on Holland America's 1,848-passenger Oosterdam - offers options beyond sedately seeing the truly awesome natural beauty of the 49th state. There's also the opportunity for adventure.
When I first signed up for the motorcycle shore excursion ($268 driver; $142 passenger) I had two thoughts: "Man, that's a cool excursion for a cruise line to offer." And "Boy, I hope I get a hunky, leather-clad stud to cling to."
Guide Don Harford of Panhandle Motorcycle Adventures was indeed leather-clad - and a charming, 60-year-old grandfather. But if you're going to cling to someone at 55 mph on a Harley on the Tongass Highway, he's your man.
And cling I did as we rode with a small group of fellow cruise passengers literally to the end of the road in Ketchikan, a fishing town (turned active cruise port) surrounded by water and forest.
The others were all experienced riders (with their experienced passengers) and were excited to add Alaska to the list of places they've ridden. We paused to enjoy views, including scenic islands, bald eagles, the Tongass National Forest and Native American totem poles. But the fast patches of highway - only about 17 miles in total - were, of course, the most fun.
I similarly skipped more sedate sights for adventure during our port call in Alaska's capital of Juneau, heading into the wild for a day of fly-fishing ($399 per person). It was me and six fishermen and we all put on rubber waders before climbing onto one of two small float planes.
We thrillingly (and loudly) soared for 20 minutes, high above forests and islands and turquoise water, snow-capped mountains nearly always in view. We passed Mendenhall Glacier toward our isolated fishing spot, a stream called Chicken Creek, which meets the waters of Icy Strait on remote Chichagof Island.
After our smooth water landing, guides Zack and Jesse let us know this was a place that has the largest population of brown bears - also known as grizzlies - than any place on Earth. They told us this as Zack loaded lead into a rifle "just in case." We got a lesson on what to do if a bear appears, which included forming a tight group so the bear would think we're some sort of giant creature.
"Never, never run," Jesse said. "The bear can run faster."
Warning aside, we were anxious to fish. Those of us who needed a refresher course practiced our casting. The more experienced anglers tied on their flies and got to it. And it was only a few minutes before someone nabbed a couple-pound Dolly Varden trout (similar to an Arctic char).
<bot>: Cruising Alaska - in this case on Holland America's 1,848-passenger Oosterdam - offers options beyond sedately seeing the truly awesome natural beauty of the 49th state. There's also the opportunity for adventure.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2008091319id_/http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/travel/2008/09/07/2008-09-07_chilling_out_in_alaska.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Last fall, we reported on an Indiegogo project for a tiny fitness tracker called Shine, made by startup Misfit Wearables. It's only about the size of a quarter but packs some serious tracking abilities.
This week, Shine arrives on shelves in Apple stores in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. The wearable activity monitor will reportedly arrive in European and Australian Apple Stores next month. It's also available online for $99.95.
Misfit Wearables' Indiegogo campaign spanned from November 2012 to January and raised $846,675, surpassing its $100,000 goal. The company said it expected Indiegogo orders for Shine to be filled in mid-July.
The small clasp device is made of aircraft-grade aluminum and helps people reach their daily fitness goals. Shine's sensors track your walking, cycling, swimming, running and sleep patterns, then syncs to a companion iOS app that lets you view progress toward your fitness goals with statistics, trends and other insights. The device displays a simple LED-light reading of your progress.
It will be interesting to see how Shine fares in the increasingly-crowded fitness tracker space. Competitors, like Nike's FuelBand, the FitBit product line and Jawbone's UP, are gaining traction and establishing respective communities. But unlike FuelBand, Fitbit Flex and UP, Shine is not confined to a bracelet; it can be worn on a shirt collar, pocket or a clothing strap, similar to the Fitbit One.
Misfit Wearables also sells accessory sport bands, necklaces and leather bands.
It's not too surprising that Shine is selling at Apple, given its ties to the Cupertino, Calif.-based powerhouse. Misfit Wearables cofounder John Sculley is the former CEO of Apple, AppleInsider noted. The term "misfit" is reportedly a nod to the late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and the "Think Different" mentality.
Will you buy this fitness tracker, or do you prefer competitors like the FuelBand? Let us know in the comments.
<bot>: This week, Misfit Wearables' tiny fitness tracker Shine arrives for sale at Apple Stores in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2013080719id_/http://mashable.com/2013/08/07/shine-apple-stores/ |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: “DO you know what’s killing Western democracy, George? Greed. And constipation. Moral, political, aesthetic. I hate America very deeply. The economic repression of the masses institutionalized.”
A diatribe overheard at Zuccotti Park during the Occupy Wall Street protests? No, think much earlier: a disenchanted British spy complaining about the state of the world in the late 1970s to his old colleague George Smiley in the much lauded television adaptation of John le Carré’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
With a new feature film of that novel scheduled to open in December, starring Gary Oldman as Smiley and Colin Firth as the America hater Bill Haydon, there’s still time to discover or revisit the 1979 TV version, which came out five years after the book. (Acorn Media is rereleasing the three-disc, 324-minute DVD set on Tuesday, with a list price of $49.99.)
Those too young to remember the post-Watergate years can get from the mini-series a flavor of the gloom and alienation that hung in the air on both sides of the Atlantic; in his review of the novel, Anatole Broyard of The New York Times wrote that no sociologist “has succeeded so well in dramatizing the sense of doom that pervades contemporary politics.”
The cynicism of Mr. le Carré’s spies has lost its power to shock over the intervening three decades. What may strike the first-time viewer of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” the most, especially if he has an image of it as a groundbreaking television production, is how slow moving and classically proportioned it is. Audiences used to the pace of the modern TV crime or espionage drama will need to reorient themselves.
The director John Irvin and the screenwriter Arthur Hopcraft did a lot of compressing and reordering to make Mr. le Carré’s complex 355-page novel about Smiley’s hunt for a mole at the highest levels of the British secret services work on screen. But the nearly five-and-a-half-hour running time of the mini-series still allowed for long, leisurely sequences demonstrating the mechanics of the spy trade.
The script preserves the novel’s back-and-forth-in-time structure, and Episode 2 begins with an uninterrupted half-hour flashback recalling the seduction of a Russian agent in Lisbon. It provides some necessary information (as well as the program’s only depiction of sex), but in dramatic terms it’s a complete digression, something that now would be covered in a quick montage or a few lines of dialogue.
Along with the deliberate speed comes a lack of physical action, reflecting Mr. le Carré’s emphasis on moral and political questions over suspense and derring-do. The mini-series begins with its one true action sequence (a canny decision by Hopcraft and Mr. Irvin); the next five hours are dominated by scenes of Smiley conferring with his small group of confidants and interviewing people who might be able to lead him toward the mole. A few scenes involving Smiley’s protégé, Guillam, pilfering information from headquarters stoke the tension, and the final confrontation with the villain involves guns and some running around. But even that scene is remarkably genteel by current standards.
The suspense-procedural style of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” with its echoes of “The Day of the Jackal” and the American conspiracy thrillers of the early 1970s, has continued to thrive in British television; notable examples include the mini-series “Edge of Darkness” (1985) and “State of Play” (2003), both remade as American feature films. There has been very little like it in American TV however. The closest recent comparisons, if only in terms of being quiet and slow, have been on the cable channel AMC: “Rubicon,” canceled after one season, and “The Killing,” which viewers appeared to lose patience with after a strong start.
Of course those shows didn’t have the ace in the hole that “Tinker, Tailor” did: the improbable presence of one of the 20th century’s great film actors, Alec Guinness, as Smiley.
It’s conventional wisdom that Guinness’s performance is a landmark in TV history, and you won’t get an argument here, though if you’re watching it for the first time, you may wonder at the start what all the fuss is about. But then you start to notice that Hopcraft’s dialogue tends to sound a bit starchy in the mouths of everyone but Smiley (even though the cast included top British stage and film actors like Ian Richardson, Ian Bannen and Michael Aldridge).
Early on, Smiley, who was the central character in five le Carré novels, passes along a lesson from his mentor: “Good intelligence work is gradual and rests on a kind of gentleness.” It’s an excellent description of how Guinness builds the character. Much of what we know about Smiley accumulates through his reactions to the lies and sad truths that he hears, in slight movements of the eyes and in his capacity for surprise, an analogue for the idealism, or perhaps just devotion to his craft, that drives him.
In a 2002 interview included in the DVD set Mr. le Carré famously said of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”: “If I were going to keep one filmed version of my work, this would be it.” At that point several fine film adaptations of his work had come out — directors like John Boorman (“The Tailor of Panama”) and Fred Schepisi (“The Russia House”) had improved on the original material — but Mr. le Carré can be forgiven for preferring the production that was most faithful to his own vision, and the actor who so expertly embodied his most famous creation.
<bot>: With a feature film of John le Carréâs âTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spyâ to open in December, thereâs still time to discover or revisit the 1979 TV version, which starred Alec Guinness as George Smiley.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2011102419id_/http://tv.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/arts/television/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-with-alec-guinness-review.html |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: “There’s, like, 50 people on the way up, so take your photos,” said a young American man, shirtless, his face daubed with paint, as he came striding through the forest towards the look-out. The view was spectacular: lush tropical foliage clinging to the sheer rock-face of a canyon plunging several 100 feet to a series of stunning turquoisey pools where tourists could be spotted swimming.
This was Semuc Champey, a must-visit on the Central American backpacker circuit and increasingly one of Guatemala’s most well-known tourist destinations. “Hidden”, “unique” and “natural paradise” are all thrown around to describe it. Lonely Planet calls Semuc “arguably the loveliest spot in the country”, while CNN dubbed the River Cahabón, which flows under the pools, the world’s “third best river for travellers” after the Amazon and Zambezi.
But how many of the tens of 1000s of tourists who visit every year are aware of the years-long social conflict over Semuc? This includes violations of indigenous people’s land rights, severe division among indigenous communities, allegations of politically-motivated arrests and criminalisation of indigenous authorities, 1000s protesting, fighting with riot police, a recent appeal by the local mayor to the president to install the army in the region, and a general climate of fear, intimidation and suspicion.
Jorge Samayoa, from the Guatemalan Tourism Institute (Inguat), says tourists aren’t aware of the conflict and he is “extremely concerned” it could mean closing Semuc - for a second time. “We don’t have anything else like it and it’s one of our main tourist sites for nature,” he told the Guardian. “It’s part of the country’s image. We’re worried that at any moment a visitor - Guatemalan or international - could be directly affected, not only economically but physically.”
Semuc - or Semuq - Champey is in the Alta Verapaz department in north-central Guatemala. It was identified as a conservation target by a 1989 law and declared a “protected area” and “natural monument” in 2005, and is currently administered by the National Council on Protected Areas (Conap). For several months in 2016 - and for periods before that - it was taken over and run by some members of the four indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in the region, leading Inguat to recommend tourists to steer clear. That ended in July when, over two days, riot police and soldiers drove them out and recovered government control of the area, firing tear-gas, reportedly shooting in the air, and entering at least two of the communities in the surrounding hills.
“When the police began to throw the tear-gas, we - mothers, with babies - ran into the forest,” Doña Concepción, from the Chizubin community, told the Guardian. “We had to escape to protect ourselves. There were children with us crying. Some were intoxicated by the tear-gas. We had to flee because we didn’t have any other option.”
Police and Conap personnel reported stones being thrown at them and shots being fired. A short film released by Guatemala’s Procurador on Human Rights states that three policemen were injured and accuses the communities of responding violently to government attempts at dialogue.
Utz Che, a network of grassroots organisations based south of Guatemala City, disputes that version of events. “A media campaign against the communities says that it was they who were inciting the violence and they are usurping and invading Semuc Champey, when it was the security forces using excessive force and lethal weapons against unarmed community members,” reads a statement circulated to journalists. “The communities have always been in favour of dialogue, but local Conap personnel didn’t take them seriously. They want to make it clear that they’re not invaders and they’re on their own property.”
According to Utz Che, at least nine young people were injured and many elderly and children were affected by the tear-gas in July. One man from the Santa Maria Semuc Champey community told the Guardian the subsequent death of his uncle, Don Nicolas, was connected to being tear-gassed.
Since the July violence warrants have been issued for the arrest of various Q’eqchi’s, with Utz Che warning of rumours of requests being made for warrants for at least another 30 people. The charges include usurping a protected area, coercion, incitement to commit crime, and assaulting security services, but the warrants are seen more as an attempt to undermine and intimidate Q’eqchi’ leaders considered threatening to Conap.
“According to information I received yesterday, all our ancestral authorities will have to be arrested,” Don Anastasio, in Chizubin, told the Guardian. “Conap has realised that we’re organised and know how to defend ourselves.”
On 4 December 71 year old Francisco Pop Pop, from the Chicanuz community, and two other Q’eqchi’ men were roughly bundled into a pick-up truck and driven to nearby city Cobán, before being released on bail. A warrant for Pop Pop’s arrest had been issued, according to Utz Che, but he hadn’t been notified and his captors didn’t identify themselves.
Pop Pop has been a long-standing critic of Conap and just over a week before he was seized his son, Crisanto Pop Mo, had been involved in a violent incident with a Conap representative, Arnoldo Tec Caal. Accounts of events differ. Pop Mo’s wife, Doña Elvira, told the Guardian that Tec Caal was armed and broke into her house at 11:45 pm, but her husband successfully defended himself with a machete by striking and wounding Tec Caal, tying him up and reporting the incident to the police - before himself being detained, imprisoned and then freed on bail. Guatemalan media presented Pop Mo as the aggressor, with La Hora calling Tec Caal latter a “defender” of Semuc and Prensa Libre describing him as a “defender of conservation.”
Just hours before he was captured, Pop Pop had spoken out, at a meeting in Chizubin, against Conap and the warrants for arrest. “We’ve been persecuted for a very long time and we remain persecuted to this day,” he said, just a few hours before he was forced into the pick-up. “We can’t leave our communities. They could seize us at any moment. That’s our fear.”
Asked about allegations that the arrest warrants are politically-motivated, Conap’s Otilio Chavez, in Guatemala City, says he is unable to comment. “That’s the public prosecutor that’s in charge.”
Many Q’eqchi’ men and women say they now fear being evicted from their communities, or having future use of their land severely restricted. Such fears have numerous grounds, including the way the protected area was established in 2005 without consulting them, Conap’s subsequent failure to include them in managing it, threats allegedly made to them by different local people, and reported plans by Conap to “expand” its management reach. In the mid-1990s the communities coordinated with the local municipality to buy the title to their land, but the municipality put two key “caballerias” - about 90 hectares - in its own name: the very area where the stunning turquoisey pools are. Since the 2005 law establishing Semuc as a protected area states it is 919 hectares, Conap’s administration should extend way beyond the municipality-owned 90 hectares - which the communities consider theirs anyway - and into the communities.
“Conap is not claiming land ownership. The way Conap works is that they establish protected areas and they restrict the rights to certain things, like prohibiting cutting down trees, even walking, or building roads,” says David Garcia, a Guatemalan anthropologist from the Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontieres which has been facilitating meetings between the communities and Conap. “Basically, they’re taking away the right of self-determination. The Q’eqchi’s would still own (that land), but Conap would have certain rights within it.”
For Don Matteo Chub, though, Conap running Semuc means potential eviction. “The intention is to remove the majority of the people, put the area in its name, and bring in whatever is required so more tourists come,” says Chub, from Santa Maria.
Another reason to fear eviction is Conap’s record elsewhere. Andrew Davis, from El Salvador-based NGO Prisma, says Conap has a “very old school” vision of conservation.
“You have to displace people. You have to protect nature from people,” says Davis, co-lead author of a report on conservation in Central America released in Mexico on 8 December which features Semuc as a case-study. He calls that vision “ironic”: “the Mayans have protected these forests for 100s of years.”
A further reason for fearing eviction is more general and country-wide: the several centuries-old experience among indigenous peoples in Guatemala of being driven off their land. This continues despite the Constitution which commits to protecting indigenous peoples, and the Peace Accords signed in the 1990s after the civil war - one of which commits specifically to respecting indigenous peoples’ identities and rights. Over the last 15 years the Q’eqchi’s in Alta Verapaz and neighbouring departments have been particularly badly-affected, says Davis, because oil palm has “exploded” and “violent dispossession has been common.”
Conap’s Abel Sandoval, in Cobán, acknowledges that his institution has displaced people in the past, but says it won’t happen with Semuc and dismisses such ideas as rumours encouraged by “bad leaders.” “They have the idea that, because it’s a protected area, it means they have to leave,” he says. “They’ve heard we displaced people from Lachuá [elsewhere in Alta Verapaz], but Lachuá is a national park, Category I, according to the IUCN [International Union for the Conservation of Nature], and Semuc Champey is a natural monument [Category II]. You can have communities inside.”
Inguat’s Samayoa recognises the Q’eqchi’s concern about potential eviction too, but dismisses it as a possibility. “It’s not like that. They have rights, dating back years, to be in the area, from before it was declared a protected area,” he says. “They have the right, as indigenous peoples, to look after their communal property. Removing them is what enemies of the area, of the government, have said we want to do. That’s false.”
Prisma’s Davis told the Guardian that, even if there are no evictions, concerns about future land-use are understandable. “Even beyond physical expulsion, severe restrictions on livelihoods and failure to recognize local rights have been common in Guatemala,” he says. “So for a Category II area like [Semuc], in my view, the deep community fears about implications for their lives and livelihoods are not unfounded.”
A key complaint made by the Q’eqchi’s - some of whom say Semuc is sacred to them - is the lack of benefits that its protected area status has brought them, along with the tourist industry developing around it. The 2005 law states that 30% of revenues should be spent on “environmentally friendly projects” to “improve their quality of life”, but, 11 years later, no such projects exist, according to reports. In August this year congressman Carlos Chavarría Perez presented a bill to increase that share to 40% - 10% for each community - and permit it to be spent on other projects, such as health and education.
“Not one project has been implemented,” says Ernesto Tzi, from Q’eqchi’ organisation Saaq Aach‘ool Nimla K‘aleba‘al (Sank). “Some families try and sell food, but apart from that there has been practically no benefit.”
According to Inguat, 175,335 Guatemalans and 143,184 foreigners visited Semuc between January 2012 and September 2015. Given that the entry fee for Guatemalans and foreigners is 30 and 50 quetzales respectively, that should mean at least 12.4m quetzales (US$1.6m) in total and 3.7m quetzales (US$494,364) for the communities have been generated in just the last few years.
Conap’s Chavez acknowledges the lack of benefits, but partly defends it on the grounds that the government has 16 million Guatemalans to consider and the communities haven’t made it clear how the money should be spent. They “must present the projects that they want. We, as Conap don’t decide how to support them,” he says. Others, like Conap’s Sandoval, say the communities have requested new roofing for their homes and hope it will be delivered in 2017, claiming that any delays are the fault of general government bureaucracy rather than Conap specifically.
Another key complaint is that Semuc was established as a protected area without consulting the communities, as was required under international law binding on Guatemala since the mid-1990s. Semuc is deep in Q’eqchi’ territory and has effectively been managed by them for 100s of years.
“My parents were born here. It’s ours. No one consulted us about Conap entering,” says Crisanto Cal Tec in the Semil community.
“This land was left to us years ago,” says Doña Luisa in Santa Maria. “It belongs to us.”
Conap’s Sandoval and Inguat’s Samaya both acknowledge that there was no consultation. The latter describes the protected area as “imposed” on the Q’eqchi’s and “one of the errors” made by the government, but claims that neither Inguat nor Conap were consulted either. “They never asked us for our opinion. It was at Congress’s direct initiative. Maybe if it had been done in a participative way we wouldn’t have the problems we have now.”
Division in the communities is rife. Crisanto Chub, in Semil, told the Guardian that 40 families are against Conap managing Semuc and 25 are in favour, and in Chicanuz it is split 50-50, says Crisanto Tec, while in Santa Maria slightly more than half are in favour of Conap, according to community members. Others say it is simply “minorities” who are against Conap, squabbling over money. Those against say those in favour are being duped by Conap promises that it can’t or won’t keep - for the roofing, for schools, for computers, for electricity, for solar panels, for egg-laying hens, for better roads - as well as short-term employment at Semuc or as representatives to a joint-management committee presided over by Conap’s director which is supposed to run the area.
According to Nicolas Chac, from Semil, three people collect money at Semuc’s entrance and 14 work as rangers - all from the communities. Chac, a ranger, told the Guardian that 60% of his community are in favour of Conap, the rest against, and those who recently took over the park were “invaders” and “illegal.”
David Garcia, from Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontieres, says that Conap has contributed to dividing the communities. “They’re not interested in recognising the indigenous authorities. They basically have their own groups within the communities, people that they have hired.”
Such divisions reportedly manifest themselves in who can and can’t access the area. A 2014 law states that community members are able to enter free-of-charge, unlike the tourists, but some say Conap employees bar those known to be critical of its management.
Chac dismisses that. “They can come in,” he says.
Another key complaint is the failure of the joint-management committee, currently consisting of Conap’s director, the mayor, Inguat, and community members. Inguat’s Samayoa is positive about the committee, emphasising its uniqueness in Guatemala, but it was only formed this year, after the July violence, 11 years after the protected area was established. One community, Chizubin, has not elected a representative, while Utz Che, Sank’s Ernesto Tzi and some members of the other three communities question the legitimacy of the elections and claim they were hurried through in July in order to re-open Semuc after the government had retaken control and then briefly closed it.
Fernando Palomo, director of Conap’s Regional Technical Issues Unit in Guatemala City, defends the elections. “We understand the process to elect the committee was done democratically,” he says.
A 1989 law states that all protected areas in Guatemala must have a management plan, but Semuc has never had one. A plan was recently prepared by Guatemalan NGO Fundacion para el Desarrollo Integral de Hombre y su Entorno (Calmecac), says Conap’s Sandoval, but Conap didn’t approve it. “It was terrible,” he told the Guardian.
Sandoval says he is concerned about the potential impacts of increasing numbers of tourists visiting Semuc, suggesting that visitor numbers should be limited. “There’s no control,” he argues. “There’s no management plan, no visitors’ management plan, no ecological capacity plan.”
Numerous Q’eqchi’ men and women now say they want to administer Semuc by themselves, without Conap, and defend how they ran it earlier in the year. They created many more jobs than Conap, they claim, including for the elderly and women who might otherwise find it hard to obtain work.
“We don’t want to see Conap here. As the ancestral authorities from the four communities, it is we who need to administer these areas because they belong to us,” says Don Santiago in Santa Maria.
Utz Che is urging Conap to prioritise participation with local communities, rather than classify them as “enemies of conservation.” “The conservation model imposed by Conap continues to exclude communities in managing resources and living within protected areas,” the organization states.
For Conap’s Sandoval co-management with the communities is the objective: “That’s our dream.” For Samayoa, who says Inguat is considering proposing Semuc as a Unesco “Patrimony of Humanity”, it is a “new experience” which he hopes can be a “model” for other protected areas in the country. For others, such as Conap’s Chavez, co-management is already happening: the joint-management committee meets once a month, he says.
Conap promotional material states that Semuc Champey means “where the river hides beneath the earth” in the Q’eqchi language. It describes it as a “natural stone bridge 300 metres long” above which have formed “natural pools of different sizes” fed by “crystal clear spring waters” running from the canyon - not the River Cahabón. “The water color in the pools has different tones of turquoise and changes depending on the time of year,” it says.
Some signs around Semuc bear the logo of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), although the one at the main entrance has had the logo cut out. According to Inguat’s Samayoa, some years ago USAID improved the infrastructure, such as pathways, bridges and the lookout. Calmecac’s rejected management plan states that in 2004 the US Department of the Interior’s International Technical Assistance Program, together with USAID, prepared a Public Use Plan for the area.
“USAID does not currently have any development activities in Semuc Champey Natural Monument,” USAID told the Guardian. “From 2003-2007 our Q’eqchi’ Maya Community Development & Sustainable Tourism project worked in the area to help promote sustainable tourism and agro-forestry conservation. The sign[s] may have been a legacy from this project.”
Semuc is just one of several case-studies in the recently published report by the NGO Prisma, titled Lessons for Mesoamerica: Conservation and Community Rights. It argues that the conservation movement is now at a “crossroads”, having for many years failed to acknowledge indigenous peoples’ rights and then adopting a “new paradigm” in 2003 which remains “largely unimplemented.” Recommendations include recognising indigenous rights in national legislation and conservation policy, and obtaining their free, prior and informed consent when developing protected areas.
Regarding Semuc specifically, the Prisma report states that, after more than a decade, 2016 has been the year when “tensions culminated” between the communities and Conap. “Recognizing the rights of the communities is the most productive way forward,” he says. “It would address the core of the dispute and ensure that the management of the area would actually respond to the aspirations and values of the Q’eqchi communities that have conserved the area for generations.”
<bot>: David Hill: Dispute over major tourist attraction and conservation area is tearing local communities apart
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2016121719id_/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2016/dec/17/top-guatemalan-beauty-spot-mired-in-indigenous-rights-conflict |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Sports CommentaryTwo unhappy NBA superstars, two dramatically different predicaments, two diametrically opposed tactics.
Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett have been carrying commissioner David Stern's increasingly tarnished league on their shoulders in recent days, bridging the awareness gap between the end of a yawn-inducing, minimally gamed Finals last week and an intriguing if top-heavy draft next week.Both suddenly are the subjects of runaway trade speculation. Both are profoundly displeased with the directions their respective teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, are headed. Both preps-straight-to-pros All-Stars own palatial homes in Southern California but are willing to work elsewhere, if only that would assure them of playing in happier, more successful circumstances.At which point, the similarities pretty much end.Bryant and Garnett -- two of the league's five biggest names who find themselves on the trade market, to varying degrees, as the NBA offseason revs up -- hardly could have taken more divergent approaches to their situations {considering the hefty nine-figure contracts under which each is working, we refuse to use the word "plights").Bryant has been fussing and fuming, stomping his feet and holding his breath for a couple of weeks now in full tantrum mode. Never mind that, in his demands (followed soon thereafter by denials) that the Lakers trade him, Bryant has gone back and forth more times than Meadow Soprano parking the Lexus. It has been, and will continue to be, all about "me" for Bryant, so much spit and vinegar about what GM Mitch Kupchak and various teammates have failed to do for him.While Bryant has been insufferable, Garnett has stayed inscrutable, virtually going underground again, as is his summer custom. Where his Staples Center buddy apparently will grant interviews to any two yahoos with a video camera in a parking lot and has various L.A. and national sports talk show numbers on his speed-dial, Garnett imposes a media blackout each year from May to October that goes unbroken about 95-98 percent of the time. Every once in a while, he might fire a shot across the Minnesota franchise's bow with a veiled remark about "the front office," but Garnett never makes it personal with VP Kevin McHale (who deserves to have it made personal) and Garnett never lowers his aim for a broadside blow.
Yet it's just as effective for Garnett to keep people guessing what he's thinking as it is for Bryant to flat-out tell us, over and over and over. One plays in a market generally acknowledged as one of the league's top two or three destinations. The other is stuck in what's strictly fly-over, baby, subzero on both the Fahrenheit and NBA nightlife scales.Thus, people presume that Bryant doesn't really, truly want to leave Los Angeles, give him a free pass on his antics and rush to find ways that the Lakers can appease their spoiled star. Meanwhile, Garnett, without saying a word, gets portrayed as some sort of Minnesota hostage, a guy who surely must be itching to leave and a muted marquee name whose relocation would be good not only for him but for the league as a whole.It's funny, too, how their handling of these trade rumors mirrors the type of players they are. Bryant always has put himself front and center, the scorer who needs the ball, the one who takes the shot, the guy who somehow feels he deserves better than what the Lakers have done for him in his 11 pro seasons. Bryant doesn't make teammates better, he simply demands better teammates.Garnett, on the other hand, tries his darnedest to go Stephen Stills on the Wolves, loving whatever knuckleheads or underachievers the team surrounds him with year after frustrating year. It flows from his pass-first, team-matters orientation to the sport, a sensibility that has earned him as many critics for not taking over games in the final quarter as Bryant has for hogging the ball when the spotlight burns brightest.Chances are, neither Bryant nor Garnett will be unpacking boxes come October. Megastar trades in the NBA are exceedingly difficult and rare, almost always favor the teams that acquire the big names and thus typically require an unhappy star to convince management that he never, ever will play another game in his current city.In Bryant's case, the Lakers don't seem to believe him. In Garnett's, the Wolves still haven't heard him.Still, for sheer entertainment value, having their names bandied about on the trade market figures to boost the NBA's current awareness and popularity. They are two of five notable players already in play more than a week before the market really opens:1. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles LakersMaybe Oliver Stone is behind all of this. At least the NBA's longtime conspiracy theorists finally are getting to flex a little after a postseason in which they barely were seen or heard.Think about it: When Stern suspended the Suns' Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw from Game 5 of the Phoenix-San Antonio series, well, that didn't fit with those who suspect the NBA of rigging playoff series to advance the more entertaining team. When Cleveland went down in four games, with LeBron James clearly not ready for prime time, no one was accusing the league of stretching out the Finals for ABC's ratings or a better payday at the gate.
And when Portland and Seattle barged to the top of the draft lottery on May 22, leapfrogging the storied Celtics and the troubled-and-deserving Grizzlies, you heard no rumblings about lopsided Ping-Pong balls or dry-iced envelopes.Now, finally, the conspiracy fans have a cause: Bryant's headstrong attempt to force a trade is the perfect solution to the NBA's West-East imbalance.No wonder Stern could sit through a series of interviews during Finals week and dismiss any and all brainstorms to save the NBA playoffs by reseeding after each round or jumbling the matchups by conference. The commish could maintain his Alfred E. Neuman grin, secure in the knowledge that Bryant and other stars from the Western Conference soon would tackle the problem for him.With his unique-to-the-NBA no-trade clause, Bryant has control over his eventual destination heretofore unknown among the league's elite players. Since the road to playoff success obviously is smoother in the East -- the Cavaliers, after all, made it all the way to June -- it follows that Bryant will continue to push hard for Chicago or New York, maybe Orlando, possibly Philadelphia. And just like that, some of the disparity between the conferences would ease.Then others would follow, with Garnett and a couple more on this list shifting sides, getting away from Greg Oden and Kevin Durant out West and cleaning up Stern's problem for him.For those who don't see the Kobe Video Guys' 24-second video as a new millennium version of the Zapruder film, the likeliest scenario is that the Lakers pull off a trade that does not involve Bryant, bringing aboard some help while hanging onto the selfish kid with the star power.2. Kevin Garnett, Minnesota TimberwolvesFor Wolves fans, the reports of a deal with Boston hold some appeal: Al Jefferson is a promising NBA big man farther ahead on his learning curve than Lakers teenager Andrew Bynum. Gerald Green is raw but has undeniable athletic ability and some charisma to replace Garnett's. Sebastian Telfair isn't touted the way he was but still has upside. And the No. 5 pick in the first round, combined with Minnesota's No. 7, could deliver both size and talent -- say, Corey Brewer and Spencer Hawes -- in what clearly would become a rebuilding era.Besides, as cynics note, if Minnesota can miss the playoffs for three consecutive years with Garnett, it surely can't do much worse without him.But here's the unnerving part of that scenario for Minnesota: The McHale-Danny Ainge pipeline hasn't worked so well in the past. When the Wolves pulled off their seven-player trade with the Celtics in January 2006, they wound up with one talented but difficult player (Ricky Davis), one overpaid and non-rebounding center (Mark Blount), one throw-in (Justin Reed) and one huge disappointment (Marcus Banks).
The two execs' tendency to play "buddy ball" makes Wolves fans skeptical that McHale would shop around enough for a better return on Garnett. It also seems as if any Garnett deal that doesn't unload some of Minnesota's contract mistakes -- Troy Hudson, Marko Jaric, Blount -- would blow its only opportunity to shed them, as in: "You want KG, you've got to take Jaric."Garnett has an opt-out in his contract next summer, allowing him to leave Minnesota with nothing in return. Then again, it would instantly clear $24 million off its salary cap if the 10-time All-Star were to pass up his 2008-09 payday. Some believe that opt-out increases the urgency to move Garnett now; others claim it hurts his trade value since other teams might face a one-year, rent-a-player predicament.Then there's this: Garnett has expressed an increasing reluctance to chase a championship, knowing that -- with 30 teams and a thousand other variables -- he could move to a playoff contender and still fall short. Then he wouldnt be a martyr or victim anymore. He'd be part of the failure.3. Ron Artest, Sacramento KingsIt could be that Reggie Theus has the demeanor to manage Artest. Heck, Artest's presence might have been one of the conditions of Theus' employment, in his acceptance of the Kings' head coaching job.But soothing Artest's many demons, many of them off the court but particularly his on-court desire to be a focal point of the team's offense, isn't an enviable task. His hyperactive restlessness is a factor, too -- just the other day, he talked of his desire to wrap up his career in Indianapolis, of all places -- that could make a team want to bite Artest before he bites it.And if Artest doesn't end up as trade fodder, then fellow Kings player Mike Bibby likely will since the two didn't mesh at all last season.4. Jermaine O'Neal, Indiana PacersTo teams eager to land a talented big man -- the Lakers, the Bulls, the Suns, a few others -- O'Neal offers much of what Garnett can bring without nearly as hefty a price tag. Garnett essentially is the Timberwolves franchise, its face, its personality, its reason to exist. O'Neal, despite his 20-and-10 ability, doesn't occupy nearly as lofty a perch with Pacers fans. His inability to push the team deeper into the postseason, the presence during his years there of more popular players and O'Neal's renowned thin skin to criticism have grown old with the Indiana crowd. And there's enough talent on the roster to make change for its own sake good, in this case.5. Shawn Marion, Phoenix SunsAt some level, Marion is right -- he is underappreciated in the Suns' formula for success. He posts power forward numbers while playing above the rim with a small forward's stature, and he thrives in the shadows of Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire.
At another level, though, Marion never has made peace with how good he really has it. He gets special deliveries on a nightly basis from Nash, clearly boosting his scoring average by four or five points, and the ensemble approach favored by Mike D'Antoni has produced the league's most exciting, and some of its winningest, brand of ball.Still, Marion suffers from a little Joe Johnson-itis, wondering if life as a lone star might be more satisfying than fitting into a stellar cast. With the Suns committed to Stoudemire not just with this crew but for a sustained push, post-Nash, Marion is the guy who is the Suns' most tradeable asset.Steve Aschburner, AOLs national NBA columnist, is a senior writer who covered the Minnesota Timberwolves and the league for 13 seasons and served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2005-07. Contact him at [email protected].
2007 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
<bot>: aschburner, nba, kobe, garnett, trade
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2007062219id_/http://sports.aol.com/nba/story/_a/bryant-garnett-diverge-on-trade-route/20070620154409990001 |
{'source': 'newsroom'} |
<human>: Produce an article summary of the following news article: Star Wars Battlefront Developed by: DICE Published by: EA Available on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows
“It can be anything you want it be,” Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter of “Empire Strikes Back,” “Return of the Jedi,” and the forthcoming “The Force Awakens,” said about “Star Wars” in a recent interview with “Wired.” In its nearly 40 years, “Star Wars” has been made into everything from breakfast cereals to bed sheets, discussed as evolving into an official religion and inspired the name for a species of acorn worms. In video games, “Star Wars” has been mostly militarized, part of a psychological terraforming that has transformed its celestial landscapes into killing grounds. “Star Wars Battlefront” is an awkward summation of this tradition, an ungainly and joyless multiplayer shooter that feels eerily at odds with its source material.
Developed by DICE, the Swedish studio behind the “Battlefield” games, “Battlefront” is a revival of a series of third-person shooting games from the mid-2000s made popular by the now defunct Pandemic Studios. The game overflows with sharply detailed “Star Wars” iconography that has been detached from its narrative framing and turned into centerpieces of ceaseless war. With five tutorial missions, nine multiplayer game types and two single player modes, spread across 12 maps, “Battlefront” feels massive yet most of its modes wind up feeling like chores.
The centerpiece is “Supremacy” a 40-player pell-mell in which teams compete to sequentially capture one of five control points spread across the map. Only four of the 13 maps are big enough to accommodate this mode, which often feels like trying to play tug of war as a group of ants. “Walker Assault” is a more interesting 40-player mode that has one side escorting a giant AT-AT toward a rebel base on the far end of the map. Along the way there are rebel relay stations transmitting the AT-AT’s coordinates to circling Y-wing bombers.
If the rebels defend the stations long enough to complete the transmission, the Y-wings will begin a bombing run that makes the AT-ATs temporarily vulnerable to damage. If the Imperials can capture the stations and disrupt the transmission, the AT-AT will continue its march unharmed. The presence of multiple active stations helps to keep players from clustering and encourages more tactical improvisation.
There’s another mode dedicated to aerial combat called “Flight Squadron.” Every map is set high above a planet’s surface and offers little topography to play with. Playing feels like spiraling through a gigantic fishbowl while shooting at gnats. There are also a couple of modes built around the six playable hero characters DICE has culled from the movies—Luke, Han, Leia; and Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and Boba Fett. Each has his or her own unique attacks and can all absorb enormous amounts of damage before dying. These modes sound interesting, but the emphasis on lightsaber attacks, lightning blasts, and shoulder charges feel loose and weightless –more like placeholder ideas — that never quite mesh with gunplay.
And in lieu of a single player story mode, DICE has repurposed a number of multiplayer maps into skirmishes against AI bots in the form of “Battles” and “Survival.” In “Battles” you’ll try to beat a team of bots to 100 by collecting gold tokens that drop when you kill an enemy. “Survival” leaves you stranded in a large map and asks you to hold out through 15 waves of increasingly difficult enemies and vehicles. Both modes are exhaustingly monotonous in their own way, too easy on lower difficulties, and too punitive on higher ones, highlighting big flaws in map sightlines, cover placement, jetpack recharge times, and the frequently nonsensical AI.
Connecting all of these incongruent modes is an upgrade economy that creates the impression of progress. In multiplayer you earn experience points for kills, capturing strategic objectives, and completing challenges (e.g. have 25 kills with a heavy blaster, destroy 10 AT-ATs). Each new level unlocks new weapons and secondary items that can be bought with credits earned from either single-player or multiplayer. The economy is haphazard, with jet packs and grenades available from the outset in “Survival” and “Battle” modes but locked away in standard multiplayer, adding to the uneven sense of play.
As with a number of other economy-driven shooters, “Battlefront” is a deeply unpleasant game that would be difficult to return to without the economic progress narrative to chase. It’s more stressful than playful to sprint 150 meters through gullies and gunfire trying to capture some strategic point, wondering where my teammates are, then sprint back to the opposite end of the map after a previously secured area falls into enemy hands. The upgrade economy can provide a simulation of significance to these moments of stress and strain. In good moments, it feels like you’re heading somewhere promising, halfway to getting a gun you really want. In bad moments, getting what you want is a pleasureless anti-climax, that leaves you even further away from the next upgrade milestone.
For Kasdan, “Star Wars” was appealing because its malleability was always oriented toward the promise of self-discovery. “Even when you get to be my age, you’re still trying to figure that out,” he told Wired. “It’s amazing but it’s true. What am I, what am I about, have I fulfilled my potential, and, if not, is there still time?” “Battlefront” inverts this idea, using the fantasy of military heroics to lure players into an escapist pyramid scheme, a grunt-eye view of someone else’s happy ending.
Michael Thomsen is a writer in New York. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, The New Inquiry, Kill Screen, Edge, and Gamasutra. Follow him on Twitter @mike_thomsen.
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<bot>: 'Battlefront' feels massive yet most of its modes wind up feeling like chores.
<human>: What could be a url for this news article?
<bot>: A url for this news article could be:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015112119id_/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/11/20/a-joyless-star-wars-battlefront-makes-saving-the-universe-feel-like-a-chore/ |
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