firefox-translations-models/evaluation/de-en/wmt17.microsoft.en

28-year-old cook found dead in San Francisco Mall
A 28-year-old chef who recently moved to San Francisco was found dead in the stairwell of a local shopping mall.
The victim's brother testified that he could not imagine anyone who would want to harm him, "Finally things were going up for him again."
The body found Wednesday morning at Westfield Mall was identified as 28-year-old Frank Galicia of San Francisco, the San Francisco forensic department said.
The San Francisco Police Department said the death has been classified as murder and the investigation is ongoing.
The victim's brother, Louis Galicia, told ABS station KGO in San Francisco that Frank, who used to work as a chef in Boston, landed his dream job as a chef at the Sons & Daughters restaurant in San Francisco six months ago.
A spokesman for Sons & Daughters said they were "shocked and devastated" by his death.
"We are a small team working like a close family and we will sorely miss him," the spokesperson said.
Our thoughts and condolences are with Frank's family and friends at this difficult time.
Louis Galicia stated that Frank initially lived in hostels, but that "things finally started to pick up for him."
"He found an apartment, he had a girlfriend," Louis Garcia told KGO.
Louis Galicia said that he could not imagine anyone who would want to harm his younger brother.
He was a kind person with a big heart.
His way of connecting with his family was to always cook us something, to prepare dinner for us," said Louis Galicia.
He never wanted to participate in any kind of argument.
He was the brother who swam with the flow.
"In everything that goes wrong in the world, he was this uncut diamond that shone brightly every day," he said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the SFPD hotline at 415-575-4444.
Jennifer Aniston: I'm always pigeonholed
Jennifer Aniston doesn't always have to be perfect or successful.
The Hollywood star has now made this unmistakably clear in an interview.
"I'm always pigeonholed or given labels from the outside that usually have little to do with me and reality."
"I myself have no desire to always be perfect and successful."
"To be honest, these things are rather snuffy to me."
Jennifer Aniston (47) can only laugh about the fact that she is considered "Miss Perfect", as she explains in the current "Cosmopolitan".
The actress prefers to spend her time at home, in front of the TV with a casual bun and Mexican food, according to the magazine.
The question of the desire to have children brings her to white heat: "We women do not have to be married or have children to be perfect," says the Hollywood star.
In her new film "Mother's Day" Aniston can be seen as a single mother of two sons.
The film will be shown from August 25th.
Golfer Langer receives the sports pyramid
His experiences on horseback are manageable.
At the end of a golf tournament in South Africa, Bernhard Langer and some colleagues were looking for a bit of variety with a horseback ride on the beach.
It was a first for the 58-year-old.
CHIO: "Golden Sports Pyramid" for Bernhard Langer
After a few minutes, the horses remembered their evening, they chased home at a fast gallop to the feeding troughs.
One kilometre at this pace, I was afraid.
"It wasn't a good experience," says Langer.
And that's how the riding career ended again.
On Saturday, Germany's best golfer of all time - 101 tournament wins - was again close to horses.
He let himself be guided with his family over the facility of the ALRV, he did not even swing on a horse for photo purposes.
Langer was in Aachen for the first time and thus also at the CHIO.
The reason was quite convincing.
The German Sports Aid presented the man from Anhausen with the Golden Sports Pyramid at a small gala.
There is no shortage of awards for the likeable athlete.
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Silver Laurel Leaf, Champions Tour Player of the Year...
Even the British Queen has already ennobled him.
Langer is the 18th winner of the Sports Pyramid.
In Aachen on Saturday he met the first prize winner Hans Günter Winkler.
"This award means a lot to me," says Langer, "because it is awarded not only for sporting successes, but also for social commitment."
Langer has been promoting young talent for decades.
And so he also passed on the prize money of 25,000 euros.
Together with 15 other outstanding athletes, the two-time US Masters winner was inducted into the "Hall of Fame of German Sports" on Saturday.
Among the winners are the athletes Hartwig Gauder and Harald Schmitt, the gymnast Eberhard Gienger, the fencers Cornelia Hanisch, Alexander Pusch and Arnd Schmitt, the rower Peter-Michael Kolbe, bobsleigh driver Meinhard Nehmer, the judoka Frank Wieneke, the show jumper Alwin Schockemöhle and posthumously the handball player Erhard Wunderlich.
Many of these sports legends came to Aachen on Saturday.
After the official part, the illustrious company wandered to the jumping stadium, where the Lavazza Prize was held.
Bernhard Langer kept his distance from the big animals.
Clinton's and Trump's economic policies in comparison: It's all about the money
Investing in infrastructure and preventing the TTP trade agreement – that's what both Clinton and Trump want.
However, the two US presidential candidates disagree on tax and energy policy as well as on a fundamental issue.
The differences in economic policy between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are based on a fundamental, rather philosophical difference.
The, about the role of the state.
Trump wants to keep them rather small in case of doubt and warns of how the state can harm the economy - with taxes and regulations.
Clinton wants to tax the economy to death and regulate it to death, he says.
He himself, on the other hand, would be quite different, claims Trump.
He will massively reduce regulations, and he is campaigning for far-reaching tax reform with lower tax rates - for private individuals and for companies.
Clinton, on the other hand, says: The state has certain tasks to fulfill, it has to open up opportunities for the disadvantaged and needs money for this.
That's why taxes are raised for the rich, she says.
Interestingly, both are very close when it comes to infrastructure.
Investments must be made in them, Trump and Clinton say almost verbatim.
The Democratic candidate even announces the largest investment in new jobs since the Second World War.
Government investment programs in infrastructure are classic democratic policies and are strictly rejected by the state-critical Tea Party wing of the Republicans.
Trump could therefore still have internal party discussions.
The differences in energy and climate policy are clearer.
Trump wants to build coal-fired power plants and ramp up coal production in the US again.
Oil production should also be possible in previously protected areas, he wants to terminate the Paris Climate Agreement.
Clinton, on the other hand, explicitly wants to expand renewable energies with her investment program and demands: "A country will become the superpower of clean energies and create millions of jobs."
"It will probably be either China, Germany or America - I want us to be."
But not only in terms of infrastructure - the two competitors are not too far apart when it comes to international trade agreements.
TPP, the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, neither wants to sign.
At the same time, however, both do not want to isolate the US from international trade - but simply better protect American jobs.
They should then also be paid better, demands Clinton.
The current minimum wage of 7.25 US dollars is a pittance.
She wants to increase it to 15 dollars an hour.
What Trump wants to do on this issue is not entirely clear: Once he says: The minimum wage must go up, then he says it must not be changed.
But the big discussion of the coming months is likely to develop more around the tax policy of the two camps.
On the one hand, there is Trump, who wants to relieve the economy and citizens in order to boost growth.
His critics accuse him of only increasing the budget deficit.
On the other side is Clinton, who at least wants the rich to pay more taxes, and whose critics say: More taxes are not the solution either.
Flight: "Every refugee woman has experiences with sexual violence"
Sexual violence is almost part of everyday life for women fleeing alone.
When they arrive in Germany, they are often traumatized.
A house offers refuge.
Four women sit in a large kitchen.
Each has a baby with them, who is no more than one year old.
One has put her little son in her arms.
He looks curiously into the room with wide eyes.
His mother stares at the tabletop.
Until she realizes that she is being watched.
She smiles briefly and kisses the little one.
The scene looks normal.
Until you talk to Katrin Bahr.
She is the divisional manager of Condrobs, a provider of social assistance services in Bavaria, and deals with the topic of women on the run, among other things.
The four women in the kitchen are refugees.
They live in the north of Munich in one of the few decentralized accommodations for single refugee women and their children in Bavaria.
In January, Condrobs opened the facility together with Pro Familia and the Munich Women's Aid.
It was recently officially opened.
60 people live there - about 40 women and 20 children.
There are no men - not even as visitors.
The exception is a security guard at the door.
"It is no exaggeration to say that every woman who arrives here has experienced sexual violence on her flight," says Bahr.
"Men flee because of wars, because they are politically persecuted, because they are threatened with torture or death, or because their families send them to Europe as bearers of hope," she says.
For women, other reasons for fleeing predominate: "Many secretly steal away because they see no other way out."
In their home country, they have experienced sexual violence, forced marriages, honour killings, slavery or forced prostitution.
That drives them away.
On the run, this continues.
"It is not uncommon for smugglers to demand a sexual act for a bottle of water, for example," says Bahr.
And the women are alone, they are not protected by their families.
Anyone who thinks that this will end as soon as they arrive in Germany is mistaken, says Bahr.
Here, too, single women in refugee shelters are often regarded as inferior and, in the worst case, abused.
As a result, about 90 percent of the women who live in the shelter in the north of Munich are traumatized, she estimates.
"Some of the children were certainly not created voluntarily."
Many women are so used to not saying anything.
"Or they do not dare to speak openly about what they have experienced because the shame is too great."
Since they often do not know how to help themselves, more accommodation is needed just for them, Bahr demands.
In Bavaria, the seven district governments are responsible for accommodating refugees.
When asked whether they knew of a similar project as in Munich in their area of responsibility, some answer no.
In the Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia, for example, there is no such thing in government accommodation.
Even in Swabia, refugee women are not accommodated separately, says Karl-Heinz Meyer, press spokesman for the government.
In Upper Bavaria, Lower and Middle Franconia, there are floors or houses in some shared accommodations only for single women and their children.
The exception is Lower Bavaria, where there are two central accommodations exclusively for women.
The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality in the European Parliament also calls for women to be housed separately from men.
A study published for the committee states, "It is very important that men and women are housed separately."
"If there is a lack of privacy or if men and women are accommodated together, violence against women can continue to occur."
In particular, the washrooms should be separate and easily accessible for women, the study says.
The extent to which the women feel this need for protection can be seen in the rush that there is on the house in Munich.
"Since word got around that we existed, we have a long waiting list," says Bahr.
You could easily open a second house.
Assistant doctors on strike: demands for new industrial action
Representatives of the junior doctors have called on their union to authorise new industrial action in their disputes over a new contract.
The British Medical Association's (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee (JDC) has called on its entire council to authorise more industrial action from early September.
JDC said that ministers had failed to address concerns about the treaty.
In July, junior doctors and medical students voted to reject a contract agreed with the BMA.
It was rejected by 58% of its members who voted in the elections.
In a letter to members posted on Twitter Thursday night, JDC Chair Ellen McCourt said the government had remained "persistently quiet" on issues, leading to the contract being rejected.
She said: "In light of this, JDC's board has voted to reject the proposed new contract in its entirety and requested official renegotiations on all your concerns."
In response to the government's silence, the JDC Board today made a formal request for a special meeting of the BMA Council to approve an ongoing programme of escalating industrial action starting in early September.
The disputes led to junior doctors striking six times this year, the first overall outages in the history of the NHS.
The head of BMA's assistant doctors, Dr Johann Malawana, resigned after the election to reject the agreed contractual terms recommended by BMA.
He told BMA members during the meetings, which took place before the vote by 54,000 junior doctors and medical students, that the contract was advantageous and should be adopted.
After the vote, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the contract would be forcibly introduced for doctors in England.
Russia and Turkey: An "alliance of outsiders"?
It was a gesture that ended a crisis.
The leaders of Russia and Turkey met on Tuesday to shake hands and announce an official end to the eight-month-long war of words and economic sanctions.
But when Vladimir Putin receives his Turkish counterpart in the gilded hall of the St. Petersburg Palace, I cannot help feeling that Ankara wants this reconciliation the most.
There was the handshake, yes.
But Putin's smile seemed narrow-lipped and he barely radiated warmth, even by his reserved standards.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the other hand, repeatedly spoke of his "dear friend" Putin - according to a report a full five times.
I couldn't count it anymore.
He also promised that relations with Russia would not only return to their pre-crisis levels, but would even improve.
The next day, a newspaper described Erdogan behaving as if nothing bad had ever happened.
His enthusiasm seemed to me to suggest the opposite.
But a sustained coolness radiating from Putin showed that the Russian leader had forgotten nothing.
Rather, the cause of the crisis was the first thing he mentioned in his opening remarks: the shooting down of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border by Turkey.
Moscow's reaction at the time was furious.
Putin shared and accused Ankara of stabbing Russia in the back.
The offense was even greater, as it was committed by a supposed friend.
Rebuilding trust will be difficult, if not impossible.
Public opinion in Russia has changed since November.
For months, the state-controlled media carried out a fierce, unrestrained attack on Ankara.
Suddenly, it seemed that the Turks were to blame for everything.
Most serious were accusations by senior officials that Erdogan's own family had profited from illegal oil trade in areas of Syria controlled by the so-called Islamic State.
He has vehemently denied this.
But in St. Petersburg, the official message was that it was time to look ahead.
After all, this meeting took place only because Putin received from President Erdogan the apology he wanted to hear.
Russia was able to record a kind of victory.
For Ankara, the benefits of a ceasefire are clear.
Erdogan needs, first and foremost, all the friends he can get after he was nearly removed from office in a failed coup last month.
Repeated terrorist attacks on Turkey have also shaken him.
But there are also economic motives.
Russian sanctions have hit Turkey hard – especially the ban on charter flights, which usually bring several million Russian tourists to Turkish shores each year.
The number has decreased by almost 90%.
In Russia, tour operators and charter companies will be relieved when flights resume.
They are counting on a late-seasonal rush to the Mediterranean.
This week, state television predicted cheaper fruits and vegetables once Turkish agricultural imports are allowed again.
A report in Vedemosti put it this way: "Tourists there long, tomatoes here long."
But the visit had an additional political value for Moscow.
Ankara is angry with the West, which sees its response to the attempted takeover as a weak response.
Add to this the ongoing resentment over the snail's pace of EU accession negotiations and Putin – eager to take advantage of the cool mood and diminish Turkey's relationship with the West.
The Russian leader certainly won a bonus in Ankara for calling for support for the elected organs after the attempted coup.
Mind you, this is a matter of course for Moscow, which itself has a deep-seated fear of regime change.
The summit in this glamorous palace by the sea enabled Russia and Turkey to present what one analyst once described to me as an "alliance of outsiders": two countries that feel rejected and badly treated by the West and are now allying.
Nevertheless, despite the public reconciliation, there are still major differences between the two.
The biggest difference is Syria, where Moscow recently gave itself the role of peacemaker, but where Russia and Turkey support opposing sides.
It might be significant that after nearly three hours of initial talks, both presidents testified at the press conference that they had not even touched on the issue.
Turkey's president deliberately avoided answering a question about their differences, while Putin chose to emphasize them.
There is no clear consensus on where a common denominator can be found on Syria.
But after months of open hostility – and given the potential for complete disaster when NATO member Turkey shot down the Russian fighter jet – it is certainly better that the two leaders at least talk to each other again.
Royal Bank of Scotland no longer available to customers outside Scotland
According to the bank's CEO, the RBS brand is to be reduced to a back-office role.
The Royal Bank of Scotland will no longer be available to customers outside Scotland.
Ross McEwan told BBC Scotland that the RBS brand was linked to the bank's global ambitions.
The bank has since distanced itself when it nearly collapsed eight years ago and had to be bailed out.
During this time, brand strategists have used "RBS" to protect other consumer financial brands.
She supported international sport with millions of pounds in sponsorship, from Six Nations rugby to Wimbledon champion Andy Murray.
But now she has decided to focus on more national brands.
The Royal Bank of Scotland will only be available to customers in Scotland but will not be initialised.
In England and Wales, all RSB references, decentralised headquarters and stock exchange listing will move to NatWest.
The Ulster Bank brand is already being used for customers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
There are other, smaller retail brands that will gain more prominence – Coutts, Adam & Co, Drummond and Holt's Military Bank.
McEwan was interviewed by customers and employees during a viewing tour in Inverness-shire.
He told BBC Scotland: "The RSB brand will become our investor brand as well as the brand under which our employees will be employed as we now become more of a bank of brands."
As the bank itself became a global brand, RBS became a global brand.
I am now saying that we are not pursuing global objectives, but local objectives.
Each of these brands will represent something completely different in their own communities and our employees will work with customers under these brands.
RBS has already stated that it will no longer continue its Six Nations sponsorship and that it will increase the visibility of the various brands in its sports sponsorship.
"It's time for us to become the bank of brands, because how do we focus internally (we asked) on making this a better bank for customers?"
It would have been very cynical three years ago if we had said that we were going to be a great bank for our customers and launched these brands.
But with our work, focusing on customer needs and not our own, I think you're going to see a lot of changes.
We can relaunch these brands, so I think the time has come.
Frankie Dettori achieves his 3,000th win at Newmarket on Predilection
Dettori sprays champagne after a double at Newmarket that earns him 3,000th win
Jockey Frankie Dettori secured his 3,000th British win at Newmarket on Friday.
He set a milestone on John Gosden-trained predilection at his local racetrack with his second win of the night.
The 45-year-old Italian is the sixth jockey to reach the milestone in the flat race.
He succeeds Sir Gordon Richards, Doug Smith, Lester Piggott, Pat Eddry and Willie Carson.
Three-time winner Dettori, who previously won on Ghayyar, said: "It's special."
I am very emotional because my family is here too
I'm very happy that it happened at Newmarket because I ended up here 30 years ago.
It's not a big gathering, it's not Royal Ascot - it's a banal Friday night with 20,000 people.
I am relieved and very humble.
Dettori takes up the cheers as he wins on Preachery
Two jockeys have reached the steeplechase milestone – jockey Richard Johnson and retired 20-time winner Sir Anthony McCoy, who achieved more than 4,300 wins in a record-breaking career.
Lester Piggott, the nine-time Derby winner had 4,493 career wins
Frankie is one of the best jockeys of the modern age and it's no surprise that he has reached this milestone that few have achieved before him.
He has style and is strong, but it's his tactical intellect that sets him apart from the others in the weight control room.
He is a fantastic ambassador for racing, his enthusiasm and charisma has been inspiring fans for this sport for years.
I told Frankie at Epsom a few weeks ago that he would have already won 6,000 if he wasn't just a weekend and big tournament jockey!
Frankie has been a winner in the UK for almost 30 years, which is great.
He has a vibrant personality, which is good for a British race, but beyond that, he's an incredible jockey.
Frankie Dettori celebrated the milestone with a typical Flying Dismount
From Flying Finishes to Flying Dismounts, Frankie Dettori has been the figurehead of British flat racing for two decades.
It was nerve-wracking.
A whole host of major tournament wins, including his famous "Magnificent Seven" at Ascot in 1996, but he also survived a plane crash and received a drug ban.
Three years ago, he initially struggled when he returned from his six-month suspension, but he showed impressive strength of character to defy his doubters and return to his best form.
And he is far from finished - Dettori once said that he wants to continue competing until he is at least 50 years old.
Russia's Putin fires Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov
Russian President Vladimir Putin has unexpectedly dismissed his chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov.
Ivanov was for many years part of Putin's closest circle of trust.
The 63-year-old has been appointed Special Representative for Environment and Transport Affairs.
In a statement, the Kremlin said that Putin "ordered Ivanov's dismissal from his duties as head of the Russian presidential administration" without giving reasons.
Anton Vaino, who had been Ivanov's deputy since 2012, was appointed as his successor.
Vaino, 44, is a former diplomat.
Born in 1972 in the Estonian capital Tallinn, he graduated from the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and worked at the embassy in Tokyo.
The Kremlin's website states (in Russian) that he later became chief of protocol and chief of staff to government personnel.
About his appointment, he told Putin: "Thank you for your trust."
I think that the most important task of the government is to support your work as head of state regarding draft laws and controls to implement your instructions.
Putin told Russian TV on Friday that Ivanov had asked to leave his post and recommended Vaino as his successor.
Are the smiling faces convincing?
This step has made Moscow shrouded in mystery.
Sergei Ivanov was for a long time one of Vladimir Putin's closest confidants and, like him, works for the Soviet secret service, the KGB.
As Chief of Staff, he was one of the most powerful men in the country.
In a televised meeting with President Putin, both men claimed that the chief of staff was resigning at his own request.
But despite the smiles for the cameras, few here are convinced - especially now, just before the parliamentary elections.
So is this the result of a kind of power struggle?
Nobody knows at the moment.
But the official claim – that a man once touted as a potential president suddenly wants to lead Russia's environmental policy – was met with great skepticism.
In his remarks to Putin, quoted on the Kremlin's website, Ivanov said "it is true that in early 2012 I asked you in a conversation to entrust me with this very complicated - one could almost say - onerous post for four years.
As it turns out, I have been chairman of the Russian presidential administration for four years and eight months.
Ivanov accepted the post in December 2011.
Previously, he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence.
He is a member of the Russian Security Council and, like Putin, a former member of the State Security Service KGB.
In the late 1990s, when Putin was chairman of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which replaced the KGB, Ivanov was appointed his deputy.
When Putin came to power, he named Ivanov as one of five people he trusted the most.
It was once believed that Ivanov could become president of Russia after Putin's second term, as a third term for Putin would have violated the constitution.
But this post was taken by another close ally of Putin, Dmitry Medvedev.
Putin became prime minister before becoming president again three and a half years later.
Criminal Minds star Thomas Gibson fired after beating producers
Gibson was involved in a physical altercation on the set of the series in Los Angeles last month.
ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios, which are producing the series, announced his termination in a joint statement.
Gibson, who played Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, publicly apologized Thursday before announcing his resignation.
On set, there were artistic differences and a disagreement.
I regret the incident," he said in a statement.
Details of how Gibson's character will be carved out of the series, which follows a team of FBI agents, are expected to be released at a later date, according to the statement from ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios.
The 54-year-old, who previously starred in the sitcom Dharma & Greg, has been with the show since the series' first season in 2005.
"I love Criminal Minds and have put all my heart and soul into it for the last twelve years," Gibson said in a statement released Friday.
I had hoped to be there until the end, but that won't be possible now.
I would just like to thank the writers, producers, actors, our wonderful crew and above all the best fans you could wish for in a series.
The scheduled broadcast of the twelfth season is scheduled for September 28.
Mystery of fish that ended up in garden in Banff
A Banff resident called for help identifying the fish, who showed up in his garden in Banff.
Kevin Bain thinks the 75 fish could be sand eels spit out by a fountain.
Mr. Bain, who lives about 500 feet from the ocean, posted a video of the spectacle on Periscope in the hope that someone might shed some light on the appearance of the two-inch-long fish.
Queensferry Crossing: Bridge now connected to Fife
£1.35 billion project to be completed by May 2017
Engineers have connected the north deck of the Queensferry Crossing to the viaduct – meaning the bridge is now connected to Fife.
It is the first of four closures of the "deck blowers" that are nearing completion around each of the bridge's three towers.
The bridge section of Fife is now 600 meters long and weighs 30,000 tons.
It has 10,000 tons of steel and 20,000 tons of concrete as well as 46 stay cables.
The £1.35 billion project is scheduled for completion by May 2017.
Business Secretary Keith Brown visited the site today and was one of the first to go from the countryside to the bridge.
He said: "This is a historic and symbolic moment in the construction of the Queensferry Crossing.
We are all witnessing engineering on a truly epic scale in this project with over 30,000 tons of concrete and steel used for this part of the bridge alone.
Despite the massive size and weight of the bridge, the completion of the closure between the viaduct and the bridge deck is a delicate activity that requires extremely precise tolerances for the fit.
In total, almost 79% of the entire bridge decks are in place and the last section of the deck is getting a concrete cast for the deck today in Rosyth, which means that the entire deck is ready to be lifted into place on the bridge.
Michael Martin, Project Manager of Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors said: "The first closure represents a significant milestone in any bridge project.
In this fantastic project, the closure represents pioneering building and civil engineering.
After the installation of the last road deck section and its connection to the north tower deck, which is currently being expanded, we then had to close the remaining gap on the north or land side.
This was achieved by pulling the northern feeder bridge 700 millimeters to the south.
This was a massive and at the same time very delicate activity.
Massive, as the viaduct is 222 meters long, weighs about 6,000 tons and had to be pulled upwards at a gradient of about 3%.
Delicate, as the tolerances the team is working towards were tiny – on each side they were only a few millimeters.
Fortunately, everything went very well.
Rescue in Moelfre Bay: Three men are "lucky to be alive"
Three men are "lucky to be alive" after being thrown off their fishing boat off Anglesey.
The Moelfre RNLI rescue station sounded the alarm at 13:20 BST on Friday after a crew observed the event in Moelfre Bay.
The three men had difficulty swimming in safety while their boat continued to move under its own power.
"We saw the boat spinning around near them and imagined the worst," said Vince Jones, head of Moelfre's rescue station.
"Fortunately, the strong winds were already blowing the boat out of reach by the time we launched," he added.
Two of the men were rescued by a local fishing boat, while the third man, aged 60, was found exhausted and hanging from a buoy without a life jacket.
They all boarded the coastal lifeboat and were taken back to the rescue station.
Mr Jones said: "The three men who were thrown into the water are lucky to be unharmed and still alive.
Although the boat engine had an emergency stop line, this detached from the person steering the boat when the boat capsized.
Someone watched over these men today.
Seriously injured - man stabbed his ex-girlfriend
A man attacked his ex-girlfriend in Hamburg-Harburg with a knife and seriously injured.
As the police announced yesterday, the 50-year-old had received the key to the apartment to get his personal belongings.
Instead, the drunken perpetrator cut the clothes of his ex-girlfriend.
When she came into the apartment, he stabbed her twice.
The 44-year-old was injured in the hand and body.
The police were able to arrest the perpetrator.
While the 50-year-old destroyed his ex-girlfriend's clothes, he called his mother.
She then alerted his sister.
Together with her partner, the 45-year-old wanted to calm her brother.
But she could not persuade him to leave the apartment.
That's why she left the house with her partner.
On the street they met the ex-partner of the man.
When the two women entered the apartment again, the 50-year-old pushed his sister aside and attacked his ex-girlfriend.
Who builds Braunschweig's affordable apartments?
The SPD and Greens believe that investors should be made much more accountable in the future.
How do you react to the bad news that Braunschweig will lose almost 1300 cheap apartments in the next few years?
The SPD proposes a "housing action plan" for the next council meeting.
But strife is programmed.
First and foremost, it is about the question: Who should actually build the cheap apartments?
A regulation is still missing.
SPD parliamentary group chairman Christoph Bratmann says: "We agree with the Greens: Anyone who wants to build on urban areas must in future designate 20 percent of all apartments as social housing."
However, the cheap apartments can also be built in existing buildings.
The big point of contention in the town hall, however, is, according to Bratmann: "How do you deal with investors who want to build on private land?"
"We want investors to build at least 10 percent, but preferably 20 percent, of the apartments on such areas as social housing."
A new urban housing subsidy program, which will cost millions and still needs to be financed, is intended to provide incentives.
The problem, according to Bratmann: "There is currently no agreement between the parliamentary groups."
The CDU wants to make investors as few regulations as possible.
The Left Party still wants tough conditions for investors.
Regardless of this, according to Bratmann, a worsening of the situation on the housing market is in the offing.
If the action plan is implemented, this will lead to additional tasks in the construction administration.
More staff is needed.
It is unclear whether we will get the skilled workers.
But the program is not yet complete: Because the approximately 1260 new apartments, which should be built anyway.
But how do you compensate for the loss of another 1300 affordable apartments, whose funding will expire in the next few years?
By 2020 alone, there will be 500 apartments.
In order to prevent this, according to planning policy spokeswoman Nicole Palm, expiring bindings should now be purchased by the city.
In addition, consideration would have to be given to bringing apartments back into price maintenance.
This is possible in the Weststadt.
The problem could be solved in one fell swoop.
Because in the Weststadt, deadlines expire at the end of the year.
Around 1800 apartments could be brought back into the price maintenance for cheap apartments.
But that's not what the owners, the housing associations, want.
Because if the number of social housing in the Weststadt is drastically increased again, one moves away from the goal of the so-called mixing.
A concentration of socially disadvantaged people in only a few districts should no longer exist.
The Greens expect that there will still be movement in the discussion.
Bundestag group chairman Holger Herlitschke says: "For a broad majority, the CDU must be on board."
The have concentrated on more building sites for single-family homes.
This does not mean, however, that a compromise cannot still be found.
Pokémon Go, a hunt for health and happiness that pays off
It's fascinating to watch the world change.
The fact that teenagers and children no longer go outside to play, but prefer to spend their free time staring at screens, has been lamented by many in the last decade.
Pokemon Go is all about getting people off the sofa and getting them more active.
Screen time was initially limited to the TV, then to video games and finally to smartphones.
Therefore, it is great to see that technology and outdoor activities are not mutually exclusive.
I'm referring, of course, to the Pokémon Go craze, an app based on the characters that were first created for video games in the 1990s (later turned into an animated series, playing cards, and other spin-offs).
Like many pop culture phenomena, interest dropped somewhat before the game's release in the US, Australia, and New Zealand in early July.
The launch in other countries was postponed by massive demand, which overloaded the servers.
Within days, Pokémon Go had more users than Tinder and almost as many as Twitter.
How does it work?
In short, players go outside with their smartphones and look for Pokémon that are tracked with a GPS and, once found, can be "photographed" (via a screenshot on the phone) or "captured."
A generation that played the game when they were younger joined the delusion and jumped off the sofa to search.
In the U.S., the game led to a significant increase in steps taken by the "average" person every day.
Cardiogram, an app for Apple Watch that tracks 35,000 users, recently told the Washington Post that within two days of the game's launch, the number of tracked people exercising for 30 minutes each day jumped from 45 percent to 53 percent.
The company doesn't know who is playing Pokémon Go — it only sees the raw performance boost data.
Many public health education campaigns that want people to "take 30 minutes," "get off the couch," and "be active every day" fell on deaf ears because many public health messages are boring and come from people who look miserable.
Nevertheless, the importance of sport cannot be overstated.
Those who exercise regularly reduce their chances of developing cancer or depression.
Exercise helps with weight control, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a long list of benefits that's too long to list here.
But the wonderful thing about Pokémon Go is that it makes people want to do something outdoors that they enjoy.
Thus, three pillars of health are covered - exercise, fresh air and sunshine, and fun.
Some people even make new friends while hunting.
As always, there are also grumpy spoilsport who always have to complain about something.
And yes, someone could run into a door.
What's the point?
A breakthrough has occurred.
Even though smartphone apps like Fitbit were able to track our activity before, they didn't give us a reason to exercise like this game does.
The new will lose its appeal and its use will diminish over time.
However, due to Pokemon's success, there will be more games that will combine apps and virtual reality with real-world activation, helping many people on the hunt to be more active, fitter and healthier.
Read Dr. Joe's blog on www.drjoetoday.com
Simone Biles achieves gold in women's gymnastics
Forget the pressure.
Forget the hype.
Simone Biles is immune to all this.
Dynamic on the jumping horse.
Effortlessly on the beam.
Stunning on the ground.
Brilliant all along the line.
And now, finally, Olympic champion.
The 19-year-old American gymnast climbed to the all-around title on Thursday, widening the gap between herself and the rest of the world in front of everyone's eyes under the spotlight of the Olympics.
Her overall score of 62.198 was clearly ahead of silver medalist and Final Five teammate Aly Raisman and Russian bronze medalist Aliya Mustafina.
American Simone Biles performs on the balance beam during the women's individual all-around final in artistic gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday.
Biles is the fourth straight American to win an all-around title and fifth overall, while cementing her reputation for being the best of her generation, or even ever.
She burst into tears when her final score was shown and her long journey came to an end at that moment.
This success puts them on the same league as unique athletes like Michael Phelps, who have taken their sports to new heights:
Biles has dominated her sport for the past three years, winning 15 world championship medals — including 10 gold medals — with such amazing exercises that involve a mix of ambition and precision that 1984 Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton said of her that she's "the best gymnast I've ever seen."
A final test awaited her in Brazil, a competition that was not so much between Biles and the rest of the athletes, but rather between her and a burden of oversized expectations.
Not returning to the family in Spring, Texas with a handful of gold would be considered a disappointment.
American Simone Biles, left, and Aly Raisman hug after winning gold and silver respectively in the women's individual all-around final in artistic gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday
Biles took the first medal on Tuesday while serving as an exclamation mark at the farewell party for retiring team coordinator Martha Karolyi.
Although Biles insisted that she never planned the future during her long journey to the top, that's not really true.
Some of her floor exercises — which include her signature tumbling pass — are tuned to Latin music that would fit at home on the street outside the Olympic Arena in Rio.
This is no coincidence.
Adopted by her grandparents as a young child and discovered by coach Aimee Boorman's mother during a school trip to the gym where Boorman trained, this girl became a force.
She hasn't lost an all-around competition since the summer of 2013, a winning streak that will last as long as Biles wishes.
Even though Mustafina led slightly through two turns, the picture was deceptive.
Balance beam and floor exercises - in which Biles holds the world title - lurked.
She caught up again with 15.433 on the balance beam - and put another one on top with a 15.933 on the floor.
Raisman embraced her gently as they awaited her final result—a mere formality—and tears streamed down Biles' shiny red, white, and blue eyeliner as the vision she once described in her scrapbook became a reality.
Raisman's performance was revenge for the last time four years ago, when she fought for third place, but the bronze medal in a tiebrake went to Mustafina.
This time, the 22-year-old team captain, nicknamed "Grandma" by Americans, had a head start.
After her floor exercise, she threw kissing hands to the audience, overwhelmed by a comeback that sometimes seemed dubious.
As for Biles, the 19-year-old's fast-spreading tweet earlier this week has a whole new meaning:
Police: 3 victims shot dead in serial killer case while listening to music in the car
According to police reports released Thursday, two women and a 12-year-old girl were shot dead in one of the deadliest attacks in a decade in Phoenix's first serial killer case while talking in the car and listening to music.
Angela Rochelle Liner, Stefanie R. Ellis and Ellis' daughter Maleah were shot dead on June 12 while the car was parked in a driveway, authorities said.
The perpetrator fired eight shots from a handgun while standing on the passenger side of the car and then fled in another vehicle, the report reads.
Police said the triple murder did not appear to have been the result of a robbery, as the attacker did not take the handbags or the $2,900 owned by one of the adult victims.
Phoenix Sgt police spokesman Jonathan Howard said the shooting led investigators to take a closer look at whether it was linked to four previous attacks.
In total, seven people were killed and two others injured in nine attacks within four months, mainly in Hispanic residential areas.
"It's happening in a residential neighborhood in front of a house," Howard told KHPO, a subsidiary of CBS, earlier this month.
The suspect is believed to have used several vehicles, including a brown Nissan from the late 1990s, a black BMW from the late 1990s, and a white Cadillac or Lincoln.
Investigators refused to disclose the evidence that led them to conclude that the attacks were linked and committed by the same killer.
Ellis, 33, was hospitalized due to her injuries and later passed away.
Liner, 31, and Ellis' daughter Maleah died on the spot.
A witness told police that it was not uncommon for them to sit in a parked car and listen to music.
Authorities also released a police report on the shooting, which targeted an empty pickup truck half an hour before the triple murder, believed to have been the serial killer's work.
Investigators found cartridge cases and secured a bullet from the seat as well as bullet fragments from the engine compartment.
Mother of a 6-year-old with microcephaly: "It's getting better"
Like most 6-year-olds, Edmund Picciuto loves singing, toys and, of course, his mother.
But like few of his peers, Edmund has microcephaly, the result of a genetic disorder that his mother, Elizabeth Picciuto, knew nothing about during her pregnancy.
When he first came home, my first thought was, I can't do it.
I can't do it.
I didn't get involved in that.
Which is not true at all -- of course they got involved," she said.
Her husband Vincent and she have been told that Edmund may never be able to recognize her and that he may not even survive.
Some doctors even went so far as to suggest institutionalizing it.
"My first response was, 'I didn't know people were still doing this,'" Picciuto explained.
Edmund can walk with the help of a walker.
Edmund couldn't sit or crawl until he was three years old, and he still can't speak.
But he is slowly making progress.
He can walk and ride a bike with support.
He also loves to play and sing with his two brothers.
Elizabeth shows the sign language that Edmund came up with for "Please sing me something."
"We teach him sign language," Picciuto told CBS News.
But it's not your typical sign language -- she says. Edmund invented some signs on his own.
Microcephaly has a variety of causes: genetic as in Edmund, as well as infections with viruses such as measles or the Zika virus during pregnancy.
Symptoms and prognosis can vary widely.
It is too early to say how it will affect the lives of those infected with the Zika virus.
Picciuto remembers the emotional price of an uncertain future.
I kept asking, what is going to happen?
What will happen?
And she still doesn't really know.
I haven't asked for the forecast in a long time because I don't expect anyone to really be able to tell me.
But Picciuto has hopeful advice for mothers of infants with birth defects caused by the Zika virus.
It gets better.
You know it will get better for you.
You will love your child and your child will love you.
Heavy rainfall, flooding prompts rescue in Louisiana, Mississippi
Heavy rains and widespread flooding in Louisiana forced the governor to declare a state of emergency on Friday. More rainfall is expected throughout Saturday.
Numerous rivers in southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi flooded their banks and threatened large-scale flooding after extreme rainfall, the National Weather Service reported.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said state officials are in constant contact with local authorities and help to affected communities is already underway.
Mike Steele, a spokesman for the governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said requests for flood vehicles, boats and sandbags were increasing.
Steele said that the municipality of Tangipahoa alone had requested ten thousand sandbags.
A flood warning system will be deployed across large parts of southern Louisiana until Saturday.
The weather service announced that an additional 3 to 5 inches of rain could fall in this area.
In southern Alabama, a flood early warning system was deployed on Friday, while it continued to rain in the Mobile area.
The Comite River near Baton Rouge and the Amite River near Denham Springs, both located in Louisiana, are likely to reach record levels over the weekend.
Meteorologist Alek Krautmann says both rivers could flood many homes in the suburban areas near Baton Rouge.
He also said that downstream flooding in Ascension Parish poses a hazard as these will be slow to flow into Lake Maurepas via the trodden rivers.
The Tickfaw River, south of the Mississippi state line in Liverpool, Louisiana, reached its highest level ever recorded at 9 a.m. on Friday.
Rescue teams were still plucking people out of the floodwaters in Amite and Wilkinson counties in southwestern Mississippi.
Leroy Hansford, his wife and stepson were among those rescued near Gloucester on Friday.
Hansford, 62, says water from Beaver Creek, which is usually more than 400 feet from his home, rose sharply overnight.
He said that another stepson who lives nearby had warned him.
"We woke up and the water was pouring and pouring in," Hansford said.
It reached my waist.
His wife told Hansford that in the 48 years she lived there, she had never seen such a spike of the river.
Hansford said he and his family members all have disabilities and he is the only one who can swim.
Hansford said emergency workers rescued all three in a large military truck and took them to the nearest fire station in Gloster, where they were housed until Friday.
Krautmann said the flood had "spread rapidly" as heavy rains continued and that authorities were considering evacuation orders.
According to Krautmann, an observer near Livingstone reported 13.75 inches of rain from midnight to Friday morning.
Krautmann said that the ground had been significantly soaked up by the rains since Wednesday.
Authorities said heavy rains and road flooding caused residents to be rescued from their homes in Tangipahoa Parish and classes were cancelled in five school districts.
CBS affiliate WWL reported that an alderman in Tangipahoa reported 200 flooded homes.
Residents were evacuated to two churches, both of which have now been flooded.
Town warden Robby Miller said authorities rescued 72 people and seven pets washed up by the floodwaters.
Emergency shelters have been set up in the towns of Amite and Hammond to accommodate the evacuees.
"Once the water starts to recede, they will be able to go back to their homes," he said.
In the town of Hammond in Tangipahoa Township, nearly two dozen roads have been closed due to flooding, and sandbags have been made available for residents hoping to keep water out of their homes and businesses.
"The last major flood we had was in March," said Lacy Landrum of the city council.
This seems to be a similar incident.
In Mississipp, Harrison County emergency manager Rupert Lacy said it continued to rain on the Gulf Coast.
According to him, a handful of homes were reported flooded on Thursday, but none have been reported so far on Friday.
Keith Townson, manager at Shopper Value Foods in Amite, has lived in the area for 40 years.
"I've seen water in places I've never seen it before," Townson said, "and it's still coming."
Mahaj Brown, 6, "riddled with bullets," survives shooting in Philadelphia
Police say the 6-year-old boy was shot in Philadelphia, the second time a 6-year-old child has been shot this week.
The boy's grandparents identified him as Mahaj Brown for CBS Philadelphia.
The grandparents stated that Brown suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including in the loin, leg, arm and abdomen, but that he was conscious when he was transported to the hospital.
"He's been through a lot, his little body was riddled with bullets," his grandmother, Delores Melendez, told the station.
I just can't believe it.
The boy's condition was classified as critical at a hospital and he had to undergo several surgeries.
The boy's family told the station that he is expected to recover.
He should have started the first grade in a local elementary school.
Brown was one of four people shot in Germantown.
Three men were also shot: two aged 29 and a 32-year-old.
One of the 29-year-old men is in critical condition; the other two victims are in stable condition, according to CBS Philadelphia.
The boy was found shot in the front seat of a car along with the 29-year-old, who is in critical condition, the station reports.
The other two victims were not in the car and the police are currently investigating whether the perpetrator could be among one of the injured men.
Investigators told CBS Philadelphia that there appeared to be a crossfire between several shooters.
Cartridge cases for assault rifles, traced back to various assault rifles, littered the crime scene.
It seems that this was clearly an ongoing struggle.
On the street, on both sides of the sidewalk, there were pods.
So there seem to have been several armed fighters here who were very actively involved," police chief Anthony Ginaldi told the Philadelphia police.
Several houses and vehicles were also hit in the area.
There were no arrests and police are reportedly reviewing the surveillance video.
On Tuesday, another 6-year-old girl was hit in the arm by a ricochet while playing outside her home in the residential area of West Oak Lane.
She recovers and the police are still looking for a suspect.
Why we need Simone, Gabby and Laurie
That's what I imagine the women's Olympic team in gymnastics to be, and for more than one reason.
First, I've been at every Summer Olympics since 1984, and the U.S. has never been so dominant.
And secondly, this team has three gymnasts, Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and Lauren "Laurie" Hernandez, who have inspired many young girls of color.
The structure of this team, which is completed by Aly Raisman, who is Jewish, and Madison Kocian, who is Catholic, makes everyone proud.
This team finally reflects the US.
It has solidified the black and Hispanic female presence at the top of this sport.
For the past four years, the number one female gymnast has been African-American.
Last year Simone and Gabby were #1 and #2.
This shows strength.
At the last Olympics, Gabby Douglas was a surprising Olympic champion and America cheered.
Now the world was able to witness the incredible performance of three-time world champion Simone Biles, Douglas and Laurie Hernandez as they delivered unexpected yet masterful gym routines.
On Thursday, Simone became the fourth heterosexual American to win gold in an individual all-around event for women.
Team member Aly Raisman won silver.
We're experiencing the pinnacle of this sport, but that's not what gymnastics classes across the country look like.
Simone, Gabby and Laurie all followed the same path as Aly and Madison to make the Olympic team.
They are the "last five" because the next Olympic team will have only four gymnasts in the team. This is also the last year with Marta Karolyi as coach.
But the reality is that gymnastics is an expensive sport and gymnasts are primarily in private gymnastics clubs maintained by parents who pay for the training, setup, travel, clothing, competition and hotel costs (for the coaches and their gymnasts and families). The list goes on and on.
The majority of these gymnastics clubs are located in affluent suburbs that can support the business.
In these clubs, the gymnasts receive all their training and this is an expensive and long-term commitment for the families.
Aimee Boorman, coach of Simone Biles, and Maggie Haney, coach of Laurie Hernandez, have both trained their athletes since they started gymnastics.
We need to provide more affordable and accessible gymnastics training for the communities of countless young girls inspired by Simone, Gabby and Laurie.
I founded my gymnastics foundation 20 years ago.
At my events, we provided free and affordable gymnastics in Harlem for over 15,000 urban youth (mostly black and Hispanic) and trained national and international winners.
In September, we will expand to Detroit (my hometown) to provide high-quality gymnastics to the youth who deserve the opportunity to learn and benefit from this great Olympic sport.
Gymnastics develops strength, flexibility and coordination for the body as well as hard work, discipline and determination for the mind.
This combination offers lifelong benefits for health, academic and professional success.
It's the inspiration of this team that gets thousands of young girls interested in gymnastics and that's great.
It is so important to participate in sports, especially for girls.
This is such an exciting time.
Thank you Simone, Aly, Laurie, Gabby and Madison for this real display of "girl power" by winning the Olympic team gold and thank you, get so many young girls from different backgrounds motivated to start their journey to become healthy, strong and successful young women.
Junior doctors want to organise more strikes after rejecting Jeremy Hunt's proposal
Ministers had hoped to end the dispute over the changes by accepting a reformed contract with British Medical Association officials, but 58 percent of the 37,000 junior doctors who voted in an election rejected it.
In July, Hunt had revealed plans to forcibly introduce the treaty, saying the NHS was in a "no man's land" and any further delay would be detrimental to staff and patients.
The first junior doctors are to receive a new contract that includes changes to night and weekend work to improve care at inhospitable hours.
Dr Ellen McCourt, chair of the BMA Committee for Residents, said in a statement last night: "Residents remain seriously concerned about the proposed contract, in particular that it will fuel the current workforce crisis and fail to treat all doctors fairly."
With only eight weeks left before the first group of doctors fall under the new contract, progress needs to be made and time is running out.
Efforts by the BMA to resolve the disputes through talks were met with reluctance on the part of the government to participate and sometimes deafening silence.
That was one of a promise Jeremy Hunt made just last month that his door would always be open.
"Jeremy Hunt must act now, lift the imposition and address the concerns of junior doctors."
Should he fail to do so, the junior doctors have made it clear that they are prepared to take further industrial action.
The last strike at the end of April saw a postponement of nearly 13,000 routine surgeries and 100,000 appointments as nurses and specialists were involved to provide cover for doctors on the picket line.
The ministers had hoped to end the dispute over the changes by accepting the reformed treaty with the officials of the British Medical Association.
The BMA wants better weekend pay for the 54,000 junior doctors who will be subject to the contract.
Daniel Mortimer, director general of NHS staff, called on junior doctors to end the strike.
Mortimer said: "Industrial action achieves little but puts a strain on already overburdened teams and service providers, causing only worry, distress and disruption to patients, carers and their families."
Over the past two months, we have spoken to the Committee of Residents and responded positively with the Ministry of Health and other ministries to concerns about guardianship and whistleblowing.
Employers hoped that continued positive engagement on other important issues - such as posting, flexibility in training, additional training for those returning from career leave, training costs, mutual recognition of the curriculum, training leave and the gender pay gap in medicine - was a sign of how serious employers, Health Education England and the Department of Health are about  Compliance with the agreements with the BMA in November, February and May.
The £2-a-day medication that may lower heart attack risk
Thousands of heart attack patients will benefit from a £2-a-day medication after authorities recommended that it be given to more people for a longer period of time.
The anticoagulant drug ticagrelor reduces the risk of repeated heart attacks for people with heart disease.
The drug is administered for as early as 12 months after a heart attack, which reduces the risk of stroke or another heart attack.
The NHS regulator NICE has recommended four years of use to further reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems.
The NHS regulator NICE has recommended four years of use to further reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems.
Around 140,000 people suffer a heart attack each year and a quarter of them suffer another heart attack or stroke.
Heart attacks and strokes are caused by accumulations of fatty material in the artery walls that form plaque.
When the plaque breaks apart, it can cause a blood clot that blocks blood flow all the way to the heart, causing a heart attack.
When the blood clot dissolves, it can flow through the bloodstream and block blood flow to the brain, causing a stroke.
People who have already had a heart attack are at higher risk of having another.
Ticagrelor, which is manufactured by the British company AstraZeneca and marketed under the trade name Brilique, reduces this risk by making blood clots less likely.
NICE's draft guidance published today recommends taking 90mg of ticagrelor for 12 months, followed by 60mg with a twice-daily intake of aspirin for the next three years.
Professor Carole Longson, director of the NICE Health Technology Evaluation Centre, said: "Despite the availability of secondary prevention, a quarter of all people who have suffered a heart attack have another heart attack or stroke – often with disastrous consequences."
The fear of another heart attack can have a significant negative impact on a person's quality of life.
Experience shows that ticagrelor in combination with aspirin is effective in reducing further heart attacks and strokes in people who have already had a heart attack.
Through a preliminary recommendation from Ticagrelor, we are pleased to be able to expand available treatment options to thousands of people who can benefit.
Information on the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor - especially the risk of bleeding - is limited to a period of up to three years. The draft guidance does not recommend treatment beyond this period.
Culture of Political Correctness Allows Electoral Fraud to Flourish in Muslim Areas
Former Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman was removed from office last year on corruption charges following a government report.
A culture of political correctness has led to widespread electoral fraud being knowingly ignored in Muslim communities, as a damning government report revealed today.
Former cabinet member Sir Eric Pickles verbally attacks police, election observers and town halls for ignoring evidence of electoral abuse due to "ethnicity and religious hypersensitivities".
The former Minister of Integration and Local Government, who is now an anti-corruption king, said intimidation of voters on religious grounds would be so bad that police should be allowed to set up cordons outside polling booths to protect intimidated voters.
He recommends that voters should carry ID to prove their identity in elections.
At present, a voter only has to give his name and address.
The report suggests applying non-removable ink to a person's finger when they cast their vote to prevent anyone from voting twice.
Whistleblowers should be given more protection, says Sir Eric.
He calls for the press to have more access to community records and decisions by non-official committees or working groups.
"This not only serves to prevent electoral fraud, but also to protect local government from the broader culture of corruption and financial fraud that comes with it," he said.
The report was ordered by Downing Street in the wake of the Tower Hamlet election scandal in East London.
Last year, a special electoral court ruled that incumbent mayor Lutfur Rahman should be removed from office after a litany of corrupt and illegal practices.
The court found that Rahman had "cynically perverted" the religious feelings of his Muslim community and that he had silenced his critics with accusations of racism and Islamophobia.
Rahman is said to have "conducted his campaign on the basis that it was the religious duty of Muslims to vote for him."
Up to 300 votes were either doubtful or the result of an imitation in which one person votes as someone else.
Sir Eric said there was evidence of fraud across the country.
He was particularly alarming about fraudulent absentee voting – in which older members of the Muslim community pressured people to vote for a candidate of their choice.
Sir Eric, pictured, made several recommendations to clean up the electoral system, including keeping ID cards to prove identity.
Its report states: "As evidence, pressure has been exerted on vulnerable members of some ethnic minorities, particularly women and young people, to vote according to the will of the elderly, particularly communities with a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background.
"There were concerns that ... state institutions would have knowingly ignored such behavior due to 'politically correct' hypersensitivities to race and religion."
Sir Eric made 50 recommendations to clean up the system, including banning political activists from editing absentee ballots to stop "election harvests."
The report, being considered by Theresa May, also calls for tougher registration checks to prevent the electoral register from being used for immigration and welfare fraud purposes.
Consider options asking voters for your ID before voting.
Use non-removable ink on a person's finger once they've cast their vote to prevent anyone from voting twice.
Conduct systematic checks on a person's nationality to ensure they are eligible to vote.
A three-year limit on applications for automatic postal voting.
Prohibition of political activists processing full postal votes and postal ballot envelopes.
Give the police the power to set up barriers around polling stations.
A change in the law that facilitates charges of intimidation under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
Ban on photography in voting stations.
Requirement that only English may be used at polling stations (with the exception of Wales).
Intensify training to ensure staff enforce the rule that voters go to the voting booth alone.
Sir Eric falls over the Metropolitan Police and finds it "astonishing" that no criminal charges have been filed after Tower Hamlet's case.
"The electoral court has declared Lutfur Rahman and his deputy unfit due to a litany of corrupt and illegal practices," he said.
He was found guilty on a number of reasons in accordance with the high standards of criminal proceedings.
He also criticises the ineffective "tick-off checks" of the election registration departments of town halls.
Sir Eric said: "Last year's judgment at Tower Hamlets was a warning sign.
Our country has a proud legacy as the mother of parliaments, but the worrying and covert spread of electoral fraud and denial by some authorities threaten this reputation.
Crazy about Kate's cyclist lookalike and other famous lookalikes of Olympic athletes in Rio
Fans of the Rio 2016 Olympics have been blown away this week by French cyclist Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, who has proven to be an impressive lookalike of the Duchess of Cambridge.
But the 24-year-old Olympian is far from the only gold-fighting athlete this summer to have his own famous doppelganger — at least not if social media is to be believed.
In honor of the Rio Olympics and all the famous faces currently flickering on our screens, FEMAIL has created a list of Olympians who bear more than a certain resemblance to Hollywood celebrities.
The hunter and the wolf: member of the US archery team Brady Ellison, left, has been compared to Leonardo DiCaprio since childhood
Apart from Kate's lookalike on the track, many people on the Internet pointed out how a certain archer could be the twin of A-celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio.
U.S. archery team member Brady Ellison has caused a rush on Twitter after images of him looking eerily similar to the Wolf of Wall Street star surfaced.
In fact, the archer witnessed the madness on social media and admitted that he has been hearing since childhood that he looks like Leo.
"I don't see much resemblance myself, except for facial hair," Brady told the Huffington Post.
"He's a handsome guy, so I guess I'll take that as a compliment."
One of the most popular comparisons since London 2012 will undoubtedly come to the fore even more this year: the striking resemblance between British long jumper Greg Rutherford and popular actor Neil Patrick Harris.
The Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina with her big, expressive eyes should be able to pass as a doppelganger for the Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan.
And in the swimming pool, South African swimmer Cameron van der Burgh has been compared to Glee star Matthew Morrison for years.
This user believes that Nathan is the "athletic version" of the Inception actor
Another persistent comparison was drawn between tennis star Rafael Nadal and actor Josh Hartnett, who has similarly heavy eyebrows and lips.
Russian silver medalist Yulia Efimova has more than just the suntanned skin and blond hair of actress Annalynne McCord, while American Nathan Adrian has been described by fans as resembling an "athletic version of Joseph Gordon Levitt."
Strong women: Soccer star Hope Solo, left, and Dexter actress Jennifer Carpenter, right, have similar face shape and eyes
Not the only one: One Twitter user was very happy that others also noticed the similarities
Theory put into the room: According to this user, there may be a reason for the similarity of the pair
One Twitter user explained her satisfaction that "the rest of the internet thinks that Hope Solo and Jennifer Carpenter are nearly identical."
In fact, US soccer star Hope Solo and Dexter actress Jennifer Carpenter have an incredibly similar face shape and eyes.
Other popular comparisons included Kerri Walsh-Jennings and her smile, which is almost identical to that of actress Laura Linney, and gold medalist in gymnastics Gabby Douglas, who has her own beautiful, broad smile similar to that of Bring It On star Gabrielle Union.
CBC commentator for the Olympics apologizes for his statement that Chinese swimmer 'died like a pig'
Byron MacDonald's analysis of 14-year-old Ai Yanhan's fourth place in the 4x200m freestyle swimming relay outraged viewers of the CBC's live broadcast of the Olmype Games on Wednesday
Canadian broadcaster CBC had to apologize after one of its commentators said that the 14-year-old Chinese swimmer "went off like crazy" and "a pig died" during the race.
Commentator Byron MacDonalds thought his microphone was off when he gave his own opinions at the end of the 4x200m freestyle swimming relay.
MacDonald, who had been brought on board to CBS commentators to add more "color," could be heard saying, "This little 14-year-old Chinese girl has lost touch, baby."
Too excited, went off like, died like a pig.
Thank you for that.
Chinese swimmer Ai Yanhan, 14, swam the second stage of the swimming relay 1:57.79 – 1.61 seconds slower than Canada's Taylor Ruck, allowing Canadians to close the gap with China.
Viewers across Canada reacted quickly online after being shocked by the tone and language.
Emmett Macfarlane tweeted, "Did the CBC commentator just say that the 14-year-old swimmer from China "died like a pig"????
The idiot didn't realize they were still on the air."
Ai Yanhan from China was described in the final 4 x 200m freestyle swimming relay for women as follows: "This little 14-year-old Chinese woman has lost touch, baby."
The criticism against Byron MacDonald on Twitter came quickly and harshly, with many confronting him
Twitter users didn't hold back when they heard how insensitive Byron MacDonald was
Another Twitter user Sarah Paradis wrote: "Wow, #ByronMacDonald.
You represent the CBC and Canada and make us all look like racists. #angeekelt.
A short time later, Scott Russell, who hosted the CBC show, apologized live for MacDonald's comment, saying, "We apologize that the comment about a swimming performance aired."
It was an unfortunate formulation, we are sorry that it happened."
CBC ended up apologizing over 90 times to the people who responded to the notice on Twitter.
Fellow commentator Scott Russell had to apologize on behalf of MacDonald
CBC copied and pasted its apology to more than 90 other Twitter users who complained about MacDonald's comments.
The network also quickly apologized and issued a statement.
We sincerely regret that these statements were made and that it was made possible for them to be broadcast.
We quickly apologized to our viewers on air and our followers on social media last night.
To be clear, Byron's comments were about the swimmer's performance and not about her as a person.
Nevertheless, they were inappropriate and an unfortunate formulation. Byron is very sorry for what he said.
On Thursday afternoon, MacDonald apologized on the show and tried to justify his remark by saying that it was not his intention that it would be interpreted as a personal attack.
"I'd like to take a moment to apologize for the comment I made after the women's swimming relay on the CBC Olympics broadcast," he said.
"I was referring to the swimmer's performance and not to her as a person."
Of course, no disregard was intended and I am very sorry."
Shoppers in Primark outraged by woman shamelessly trying on underwear in the middle of the store
Shoppers didn't know where to look when a woman took off her clothes in the middle of a Primark to try on underpants.
To make matters worse, she looked at how she looked in it, undressed it, and put it back on the shelf.
She continued browsing and tried on four pairs of underpants in a shop in the Bouverie Place shopping centre in Folkestone.
The Primark store in Bouverie Place shopping centre in Folkestone, where the woman tried on the underpants before putting them back on the shelf
A mother of two, Jenny Davidson, who was in the store at the same time, said that after the mysterious woman tried on the underwear, "she got dressed again and left the store without buying anything."
She said, "People couldn't believe what they saw."
Standing in the middle of the sales floor, she took a pair of underpants from the display, took off her own tights and pants and tried them on.
"She didn't even try to find a more discreet place to do it - she just stood there, naughty like Oskar."
"Everyone was staring as she took off her underpants, which she obviously didn't like because she put them back on the shelf."
She repeated the same thing with three more underpants before finally deciding she didn't like anything, got dressed again and walked out.
"She didn't seem to mind that someone was watching her — or thinking about the person who might buy the underpants she had tried on."
Ms Davidson, 33, who lives in Kent, said: "How disgusting to think that someone would take home underpants that another person was wearing and that weren't washed."
The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon.
Ms Davidson added: "I understand that the staff tried to pull the clothes out of sale after she left - which is just as good."
"I would hate to go home with a new pair of underpants and find out that another woman was wearing them and taking them off again and they weren't washed."
A Primark spokesperson said: "Primark is aware of the incident that occurred at our Folkstone store on Tuesday 9 August."
All eligible products have been withdrawn from sale.
How to protect yourself from gun attacks with Krav Maga
The outside world is a dangerous place, but this video from Dailymail.com might make it a little safer for you.
We spoke with Rhon Mizrachi, a grandmaster of the Krav Maga Association in New York, to find out how to deal with armed robbers at close range.
Regardless of whether you are approached from the front or from behind, this video will show you how to turn the tables on your robber.
If you are approached from behind, the first thing you should do is turn around so that you can see your attacker and "get out of the line of fire," Mizrachi says.
Then grab the gun between your forearm and your shoulder before hitting him in the face with your free elbow.
Then hit him in the groin with your knee and, while the attacker curls up in pain, twist the weapon out of his hands. Hit him in the face with the barrel and move backwards while pointing the gun at him.
For attackers approaching from the front, the technique is similar - move your body out of the line of fire, grab the weapon and twist it so that the attacker can not shoot.
At the same time, shift the weight onto the gun and hit the attacker on the chest, then twist the gun out of his grip before moving backwards and pointing the gun at him.
Sounds difficult?
Watch the video to see exactly how Mizrachi is doing it.
But remember that in case of a robbery, it is safest to hand over your money - unless you are a Krav Maga grandmaster.
Traveller Ian Wright scrapes his tongue in Europe's dirtiest places for a guide
A British traveller put his immune system and gag reflex to a serious test – by licking up some of Europe's dirtiest and most disgusting places.
Suffolk presenter and travel writer Ian Wright, 51, scraped his trains on a euro bill, a railing at Piccadilly Circus, a flush button on a train toilet and a public telephone in Russia to prove the resilience of his immune system.
Before licking each object, he used a luminometer to show himself and us what he was going to get into.
But the experiment, filmed under the title "The Lickhiker's Guide to Inner Strength," brought some surprising results to light.
The thought of licking the flush button of a train toilet that has already been used by thousands of others may be completely repulsive, but in fact there are more bad bacteria in a kitchen sink.
On his trip through Europe, Mr. Wright spoke with doctors and healthcare professionals about promoting gut bacteria as well as his own health.
Fortunately, nothing he licked left more than a bad aftertaste in his mouth.
Mr. Wright became known for testing the resilience of his gut by traveling the world eating strange and wonderful things.
From public railings at train stations to flush buttons on toilets, the task definitely put his immune system to the test.
In the film, he said: "Even as a child I was relatively unconcerned about my health and I put all sorts of things in my mouth, soil, worms and mud water."
In the film, he definitely lived up to his reputation.
The only thing he rejected was a dirty public toilet in Russia.
His sample swab showed a luminometer count of over 4000 units.
In comparison, the luminometer count of freshly washed hands is less than 60.
But there was a Russian toilet that he refused to lick after its luminometer count was over 4,000 units, while freshly washed hands have one of less than 60.
Mr. Wright and Finnish dairy manufacturer Valio produced the travel film "The Lickhiker's Guide to Inner Strength," which shows the number of bacteria in various locations such as the bathroom.
In the film, he says, "This comes close to the worst I've smelled in a toilet."
There is nothing dirtier than that!
I'm not going to lick anything here because it's disgusting in here.
"The Lickhiker's Guide to Inner Strength" was produced in collaboration with the Finnish dairy manufacturer Valio.
The Company is equipping Mr. Wright with Valio Gefilus, which contains lactic acid bacteria as well as vitamins C and D, to help promote gut bacteria and the immune system.
Valio's Senior Venice President for Snacks, Juices and New Categories Niko Vuorenmaa says: "We really wanted to offer consumers something new.
Something that is fascinating to look at while explaining the benefits of probiotics.
We did crazy brainstorming sessions that ended with us saying, "Let's call Ian."
They claim that interest in gut health is becoming a global phenomenon
Instead of just talking about the products, we wanted to put them in a larger context – the good and bad bacteria in our everyday environment, the importance of gut health, and how it's linked to the immune system.
The growing interest in gut health is a global phenomenon and with the documentary we were able to provide consumers with more information about it in an interesting way.
I also think that the film shows that we have a great sense of humor!
Tom Hakala, who directed the film, added: "Let me put it this way – I would have lost my respect for Ian if he had licked some of the things I told him to lick, like the disgusting Russian toilet shown in the film."
Of course, there were things that were easier to get Ian to lick and others that were quite difficult.
I'm glad we filmed some of these dirty treats."
In a 2015 survey conducted by Valio, 84 percent of all respondents associated lactic acid bacteria specifically with stomach and intestinal well-being, and 58 percent said they used at least occasionally products containing added lactic acid bacteria.
Anti-social family destroys social housing in Saltash, Cornwall before eviction
An anti-social family left their social housing after being evicted with £50,000 in damage for terrorising their neighbours.
Tanya Skeldon and her partner Shaun Trebilcock were kicked from their estate in Saltash, Cornwall after a long list of complaints.
After being forcibly removed from their property, shocked employees of the housing cooperative found the property in an irreparable condition.
The walls had gaping holes, wooden floorboards were torn open, garbage was scattered on the floor and graffiti was smeared on the walls.
The family has been relocated and it is believed that they now live in private accommodation
Donna McEvoy, who works for property management at Cornwall Housing, said she fears the apartment is beyond repair.
She said: "It's been an absolute nightmare for people here and I don't think people have to live this way.
There are many things to consider, as this property will probably be considered a not-so-beautiful part of Cornwall.
The family is notorious and so is their reputation.
The couple had three sons who were living in the apartment at times, and police said the terror inflicted by the family included street fights with baseball bats, intimidation of local residents, drug abuse, drug trafficking, and excessive shouting, arguing and cursing.
Skeldon, 47, whose name was on the lease, received an order for antisocial behavior in June.
In some rooms of the house, which may be demolished, old garbage was found
The wooden floorboards were torn open in the property where drugs were traded in the past.
Neighbors testified that they saw them fighting on the street and that the police had to be called regularly.
Cornwall Housing forcibly evicted her and her partner from the property this week after giving them an extended 11-week period to move out voluntarily.
The eviction was cheered by relieved neighbors who said their lives had been made hell.
One testified, "They didn't care about anyone."
We lived next to them for 20 years and it was always bad.
The countless times we say to the police here are incredible.
"We couldn't sleep this morning."
We got up because it was so quiet here - we are not used to that!
Now that they are finally gone, it will be beautiful.
Adam Fitzpatrick, Cornwall Housing's Neighbourhood Enforcement Manager, said the family had failed to cooperate with local authorities.
The family lived in the house to which the police were called at regular intervals for 20 years.
Garbage and old toys were thrown down on the overgrown side of the meetinghouse
He added: "It is a shame that the tenant failed to accept any responsibility for her behaviour and that of her family, as eviction is always the final step Cornwall Housing considers.
This was a very difficult case, as the behavior was extreme and their actions had to be horrible for their neighbors to watch.
I appreciate all the work that my team, Devon and Cornwall Police and members of the community have courageously approached us and given us the information.
I hope that this development will comfort some neighbours and convey the message that anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.
Fitzpatrick said all three sons lived in the house at different times, but that they were all over 20.
A dirty mattress left on the floor in one of the bedrooms of the house after eviction
Property management workers will now have to clear away mountains of rubbish surrounding the house
In 2014, police raided the house and found over 70g of cannabis, as well as £1,700 in scales, paraphernalia and cash.
Skeldon was fined after pleading guilty to possession of a Class B drug with intent to trade.
She claimed that the money was for a gravestone of her son Lee Skeldon, who died in a car accident in 2013.
Having been homeless, Tanya and her partner are now believed to be living in private accommodation in Plymouth.
Many of the walls of the house were smeared with graffiti.
Police say they will evict tenants who don't abide by house rules
Angela Crow of Devon and Cornwall Police said the eviction was a clear warning to other tenants who do not abide by the house rules.
"This goes to those who think they can behave without self-blame, as well as those who have been harmed by such behavior," she said.
Devon and Cornwall Police will never tolerate criminal and anti-social behaviour, who will continue to work with partners to protect our communities.
Tourists panicked in Portugal after a low-flying military jet flies over beach
Sun worshippers in Aveiro, Portugal experienced the shock of their lives
A Portuguese P-3C Orion aircraft of the Air Force took an incredible dive
The air force stated that it was on a training flight, but insisted that there was no safety risk.
This was the moment when frightened tourists begin to panic after a low-flying jet crashes over a crowded beach.
Dramatic video footage showed the military plane flying almost within reach above the sun worshippers on the stretch of beach in Aveiro in northern Portugal.
The holidaymakers jumped up when they understandably began to worry about the noise of the jet engines, without first seeing what was coming through the clouds.
The incident occurred yesterday afternoon in Costa Nova, near Aveiro.
Daniel Fernandes, one of the many holidaymakers who posted videos of the dramatic fly-by on social media, said: "It flew by really very low twice and there was a moment when it looked like it was going to crash."
Nuno Arroja added: "I was surfing and it felt like the plane was falling on me."
Tourists on Aveiro beach were panicked when the plane came out of the darkness and flew incredibly low.
The Portuguese Air Force said today that the pilot of the P-3C Orion aircraft was on a training flight to identify fishing boats off the coast and had to fly so low that this was the only way to detect them.
The spokesman said the jet flew slightly lower than usual due to poor visibility caused by nearby wildfires, but the air force insisted that safety was never compromised.
Wildfires destroyed parts of mainland Portugal this summer, killing four people on the island of Madeira.
The Portuguese Air Force said today that due to the conditions - heavy fog and incendiary smoke - the pilot had to fly so low, which limited his visibility.
The aircraft was on a training flight where the pilot had to identify fishing boats as part of the exercise.
Supercup: Barca with worries against Sevilla
Sevilla - FC Barcelona will be battling for the first step towards winning their first title of the new football season on Sunday.
The Catalans will face Sevilla FC away in the Spanish Super Cup duel, with the second leg taking place three days later at Camp Nou.
The double winner has to do without Neymar, who denies the Olympic football tournament with Brazil, among others, in the showdown with the defeated cup finalist and reigning Europa League champion.
In addition, goalie Marc-Andre ter Stegen is also missing.
The German suffered a ligament sprain in his knee in training, which clarifies the one-man question at Barca at least for the time being in favor of Claudio Bravo.
The Chilean international and Ter Stegen have been vying for number one status in Barcelona for two years now.
Coach Luis Enrique has so far refrained from making a clear decision in this regard and let Bravo in the league, but Ter Stegen in most other competitions.
Before the first competitive match of the new season, the Spanish champions have doubts about the fitness of the team, which was humiliated 4-0 in a Liverpool friendly on Saturday.
Even in the 3-2 win against Sampdoria on Wednesday, Lionel Messi and Co. did not really know how to convince.
Sevilla, on the other hand, have to digest the 3-2 defeat after extra time in the European Super Cup against Real Madrid and are aiming for a second triumph in the "Supercopa de Espana".
Barcelona is the record winner in this competition with eleven successes so far.
Ma Long in a league of its own to table tennis gold
Rio de Janeiro - The Chinese Ma Long is the new Olympic table tennis champion.
The 27-year-old defeated his compatriot and "defending champion" Zhang Jike 4-0 (12,5,4,4) in a one-sided final in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
Thus, the world number one won the "Golden Grand Slam" with successes at the World Cup, World Cup, World Tour final tournament and Olympics.
Bronze went to Japan's Jun Mizutani.
As expected, the two Chinese made it to the final and won the title among themselves.
So it was clear that for the third time in a row a Chinese would win the singles title under the sign of the five rings.
The last non-Chinese on the top Olympic podium was the former SVS-NÖ legionnaire Ryu Seung-min from South Korea.
Ma and Zhang were left to their own devices at the plate, with no coaches with them between sets and timeouts.
They had retreated to the stands and let their protégés loose on each other alone in a fair competition.
"The matches so far I've played for my country."
"In the final, I play for myself," Zhang had said logically.
After the game, gold and silver medalists posed with the China flag.
The match itself was unexpectedly one-sided.
Ma only really struggled with his 28-year-old opponent in the first set.
After that, he set the pace at the plate and left Zhang only 13 points in total.
Due to Ma's superiority, the expected thrilling match did not develop.
Nevertheless, there were enough breathtaking rallies to be seen.
Mizutani won the bronze medal match against 40-year-old Vladimir Samsonov 4-1.
The Belarusian had suffered a rib injury in his quarter-final against the German European champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov, was then in medical treatment, had to be content "ultimately" with sheet metal.
By the way, the Swedes Jan-Ove Waldner (38/2004) and Jörgen Persson (42/2008) had finished fourth in the Olympics at a similarly high table tennis age.
Donald Trump admits "huge problems" in election campaign
The leadership of the US Republicans is plagued by massive concerns about losing its majority even in traditionally conservative states.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has now admitted weaknesses in his election campaign in the former Republican stronghold of Utah.
A rare moment in which the normally cocky and confident multimillionaire expressed something like concerns, as correspondents reported.
After knocking out 16 rivals within his own Republican camp, doubts are now growing about his success in the fight for the White House.
"We have tremendous problems in Utah," Trump told evangelical Christians, whom he asked for support in important states such as Ohio, Florida or Virginia.
False reports about his candidacy were to blame, he resumed his well-known media scolding.
Republican strongholds wobble
Utah is usually a safe bet for Republicans.
According to a June poll by SurveyUSA, Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, were on a par.
Other institutes see Trump ahead, but not with the distance that is usual for Republican candidates in the state.
Arizona and Georgia are also considered endangered.
In an interview with CNBC, Trump replied to the question of how he wanted to stop Clinton's advance: "Just like I've done so far."
And he added: This will "either be successful, or I will have a very, very nice, long holiday".
He does nothing more than "tell the truth".
If it is not enough for him in the end for reasons of political correctness, that is fine, Trump said.
Then I return to a very good way of life.
According to press reports, the party threatened Trump to cut funds to support his election campaign if he could not present better poll numbers.
Instead, they want to help the Republican candidates for Congress more.
Olympics: Brazen fraud in doping test
The IOC wants to set up a disciplinary commission on the case.
Kenya's track and field athletes are threatened with adversity after the second doping affair at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Kenya has sent a coach home after an attempted fraud at a doping control in the Olympic Village.
The International Olympic Committee announced that it would immediately set up a disciplinary commission to investigate the case.
A Kenyan official had announced that former sprinter and current coach, John Anzrah, had given a urine sample at the Olympic Village under the name of 800-meter runner Ferguson Rotich.
This had been reported to the team management of Kenya by the doping controllers.
The IAAF has asked the IOC for information about the case in order to launch its own investigations, an IAAF spokesman said.
"Depending on the results of the investigation and subsequent actions by the IOC, the IAAF will make an assessment," an IAAF statement said.
"He (Anzrah) went to the doping control station and pretended to be Ferguson Rotich, handed in the sample and signed," said Kenya's Chef de Mission Stephan Arap Soi.
He was in possession of the accreditation of the athlete who was on the list for training controls of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Ferguson Rotich finished fourth in the 800 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
Four days earlier, the head of the Kenyan athletics delegation Michael Rotich had been withdrawn from the Rio Games.
He is said to have informed athletes of his country about upcoming doping tests in exchange for monetary payments.
According to media reports, he was arrested on his return at Nairobi airport.
Kenya has been under special observation at the IOC for some time after numerous doping offences.
When announcing the more than 2,000 doping target controls launched by the IOC before the Rio Games, it was unusually pointed out beforehand that athletes from Kenya and Russia would be targeted in particular.
The World Anti-Doping Agency had exerted a lot of pressure on the African country before the Summer Games in Brazil to create an anti-doping law and a functioning control system.
The law was passed a few weeks before the start of the Olympics.
As a result, WADA removed Kenya from the list of countries whose anti-doping operations comply with WADA rules.
Kenya is considered a great running nation.
The country's track and field athletes won the most medals at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
In a series of television reports by ARD, accusations were repeatedly made that doping substances are easily accessible in Kenya and that there is a considerable mentality of sports fraud.
IOC member Richard Pound recently called for a similar investigation in Kenya as he had done in Russian athletics.
It could be proven that doping was widespread and systematic in this sport.
Russia's track and field athletes were subsequently excluded from the Summer Games.
Salzburg "West Side Story" with Cecilia Bartoli
In the Shakespeare year, the Salzburg Festival presents "West Side Story" with Tony and Maria as tragic lovers, similar to Romeo and Juliet.
With a surprising Cecilia Bartoli.
A musical conquers Salzburg: the "West Side Story", Leornard Bernstein's masterpiece.
The artistic director Cecilia Bartoli wanted to bring the musical to the temple of classical music and fulfilled a childhood dream with the role of Maria.
In the orchestra pit, the Simón Bolívar Orchestra under the direction of the Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel: "This music is full of rhythm," he enthuses.
We always say that it is very Latin American.
There are many Latin American ingredients in their tempo and melody.
It's a wonderful mix, the perfect recipe for our orchestra.
I would say that we really have Bernstein's music in our blood!
In this production, Bartoli plays an older Maria.
She remembers with melancholy her love affair with Tony, while the younger Maria plays and dances.
The role of Maria has always fascinated me.
Firstly, because it is musically extraordinary!
And then there is Maria's personality.
She says it in her song: "I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and bright".
So she is smart, of course also naïve, and very passionate.
"It resembles me a lot, my Italian character, which I have as a Roman," laughs Bartoli.
Dudamel is full of praise for the opera singer: "Cecilia is a wonderful artist."
It is such an honor for us to work with her.
She is a tremendously generous person.
And Bartoli returns the compliment: "Dudamel is such an extraordinary artist and very passionate!"
Conducting is a necessity for him.
You can see it in his every move, in his looks, it's his life!
It's such a huge opportunity to share this musical experience with him.
We both have a more southern temperament, a fire, a passion and also a cheerful approach to life, which is very important in general!
For the American director Philip Wm. McKinley, "West Side Story" is highly topical: "This play is about prejudice and fanaticism."
Today we have the refugees, then the Puerto Ricans went to New York, and the New Yorkers didn't want them.
They are the same topics, and they are just as meaningful today as they were then.
59 years later, the piece is still relevant.
London schoolgirl who joined ISIS was killed in Syria
Kadiza Sultana, one of three British schoolgirls who left London last year to join ISIS, reportedly died in Syria.
Lawyer Tasnime Akunjee said her family learned of her death in Raqqa, Syria, a few weeks ago.
She was suspected to have been killed by a Russian airstrike in Raqqa, the group's bulwark in the country, ITV News reported on Thursday.
Sultana was 17 years old and, according to her family, died shortly after planning to leave the war-torn country and return to England.
"One can only hope that the only good thing is that — as a reminder and warning to others that these are the risks associated with going into a war zone — to prevent people from ever making that decision," Akunjee said.
In February 2015, Sultana and two other schoolgirls from east London boarded a plane bound for Turkey and then a bus to the Syrian border.
Sultana's family was told that they married an ISIS fighter in Syria — and became a widow within months.
Reid says Clinton will remain with Garland as a Supreme Court nominee if she wins the election
Harry Reid, leader of the Democrats in the Senate, is convinced that the presidential candidate of the Democrats, Hillary Clinton, will nominate Justice Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court.
Senate Republicans have blocked Garland's confirmation since his nomination by Barack Obama in March.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell believes that the next president will appoint the successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Reid said Thursday during a conference call that he expects Clinton to select Garland "with some degree of certainty."
A spokeswoman for Reid later said that he had not yet spoken to Clinton about whether she would nominate Garland and he was speculating.
He praised Garland and said Clinton's team would not cause trouble with a new candidate.
Garland is the Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Raid said Republicans blocking Garland's nomination were lackeys and accomplices to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
He also noted that Donald Trump was unfit for the presidency.
Treats wants nude calendar for "women and for men"
Treats magazine is working with photographer David Bellemere to release a 1970s Pirelli-inspired calendar for 2017.
But instead of famous naked people, they want to find the next generation of top models for their NU Muses calendar for 2017.
Treats editor-in-chief Steve Shaw told us earlier this year that his nude magazine was different from old-school playboys because "Playboy is for men."
I do this for women.
Apparently, he thinks the calendar does too.
"We need to go back to the depiction of timeless and classic nudity, where both women and men feel comfortable and inspired by these images of a female body," Shaw said in a press release announcing the calendar's release.
Women will want to participate in this project because it is a beautiful work of art.
Models can submit their images online or in person to open casting calls in Los Angeles and New York.
Turkey: Kurdish community expects mass exodus
"Those who don't adapt and praise Erdogan are sitting on packed suitcases," says Ercan Karakoyun, chairman of the Gülen-affiliated Foundation for Dialogue and World.
The Kurdish Community of Germany expects tens of thousands of people seeking protection to flee from Turkey to Germany in the short term.
In the medium term, it could even be "several hundred thousand", believes the association's chairman Ali Toprak.
Due to the harsh actions of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the coup attempt, the Kurdish Community expects Germany to flee to Germany on a mass exodus.
"In the short term, I expect tens of thousands, in the medium term with several hundred thousand asylum seekers from Turkey in Germany, if the Erdogan regime continues to fight the minorities and the democratic opposition," said the association's chairman Ali Toprak of the "world" on Friday.
Because the government had already covered Kurdish strongholds months ago with punitive actions, 500,000 Kurds are on the run within Turkey.
After the foiled coup, secular and oppositional ethnic Turks would be added.
Many will want to start over in Europe if they continue to be oppressed in Turkey.
"It cannot be that a state that takes in refugees itself produces refugees in its own country," Toprak said.
The head of the association complained about the targeted settlement of Syrian Arabs in Kurdish, but also in Alevi cities.
Erdogan wants to increase the pressure on the remaining Kurds to leave the country.
"They are the last large minority in Turkey, the Christian Armenians and Greeks have already been exterminated or expelled in the past hundred years," said Toprak, who is also a CDU member.
The head of the association demanded that the federal government "position itself as sharply as Austria against Erdogan and his supporters."
In Germany, too, a "witch hunt" against Erdogan critics is taking place.
For the first time in recent months, I no longer feel safe in Germany.
The German branch of the Gülen movement also fears that many Turks will flee abroad.
More Turks will seek asylum in Germany, especially Kurds and members of the opposition.
Branding as a Gülen supporter destroys the professional existence of teachers and other academics.
"Those who do not adapt and praise Erdogan are sitting on packed suitcases, including the Kemalists and secularists," Ercan Karakoyun, chairman of the Gülen-affiliated Foundation for Dialogue and Education, told Die Welt.
As the newspaper reports, citing figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Turks were already the largest group of asylum seekers recognized for political persecution in Germany before the coup.
As of June 30, this was 11,386 people, almost 29 percent of all those recognized as entitled to asylum (39,625).
This survey does not include those who have fled war, poverty or lack of prospects.
According to the Basic Law, only persons persecuted politically, i.e. by the state, are entitled to asylum.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: "Go where it hurts"
Strange Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: The locals get nothing from the summer election campaign - and the holidaymakers from North Rhine-Westphalia are not allowed to vote for the state parliament.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania they understood.
In 2021, the state election will not take place again directly at the end of the summer holidays, the Schwerin parliament decided at the beginning of the year.
Because it doesn't get any more stupid than before: summer holidays, heat and state election campaign - that bites.
The locals, who are to be convinced by the election campaigners, are on vacation.
The vast majority of holidaymakers who are in the country, on Usedom, Rügen or Hiddensee, are not locals, so they are not allowed to vote for the state parliament.
In addition, there are practical problems: During the holidays, helpers who hang up posters, inflate balloons, distribute flyers and count votes at the end are difficult to find.
Until 4 September 2016, the election and last holiday day, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has to endure another election campaign just past the people.
The hot phase, if you can say that at all, has just begun.
And there is also something at stake: Prime Minister Erwin Sellering, leader of an SPD/CDU coalition, must fear for his office.
The SPD, the strongest party since 1998, is now clearly behind the CDU in the polls.
It will be exciting to see how strong newcomer AfD performs and what remains in the end coalition-suitable.
Sellering, 66 years old and head of government since 2008, is running an almost inconspicuous election campaign, apart from his large posters.
He travels through the country, distributes roses and chats a little with the people, just like his legendary taciturn predecessor Harald Ringstorff did.
Otherwise, Seelering got cold feet and blames Chancellor Merkel for the blossoming of the AfD.
Their refugee policy, their "We can do it" have accelerated the rise of right-wing populists, which will probably cost him his beautiful office.
The CDU with its top candidate, Interior Minister Lorenz Caffier, has already experienced what it is like to campaign at the wrong time in the right place.
She has twice invited Chancellor Angela Merkel to major rallies; Merkel's Bundestag constituency is located in the northeast.
But the target group was not right, there were more North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin and Saxony than Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania.
"There was probably the majority from other federal states," Vincent Kokert, general secretary of the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, recently complained to NDR.
But it doesn't hurt anyone from other corners of Germany to listen to Angela Merkel.
Otherwise, the North-East CDU largely dispenses with the usual campaign stands on market squares and in front of shopping centers with umbrellas and balloons.
This, says Kokert, plays only a "subordinate role".
The Union, too, has noticed that its base is crumbling away in the countryside, that it has to make a great effort to reconnect with the people.
It is like the Left, the SPD, the Greens: hardly present in the vastness of the country.
However, the advice of the CDU election campaigner Kokert to his comrades-in-arms is also self-revealing: "You have to go where it hurts, namely where the people are: village festivals, golden weddings, every birthday party must be used."
Because much is at stake, Sellering has now called on his SPD to launch a particularly committed election campaign.
In polls, the Social Democrats were last with 22 percent behind partner CDU (25) and just ahead of the AfD (19).
In the 2011 election, the SPD had clearly won with 35.6 percent ahead of the CDU (22).
The Greens, a small party with seven percent in the polls, are likely to make the leap into the state parliament.
They make a modern virtue out of the holiday misery and move their election campaign largely to the Internet.
"Online election campaign," is what state chairwoman Claudia Müller calls it.
Otherwise, Green election campaigners go in search of traces of local voters among the holidaymakers.
Silke Gajek, the top candidate, is currently driving a houseboat through the lakes in Mecklenburg and thinks it's beautiful.
Her impression: "Election holidays in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are not a punishment".
B27 renovation: Restaurants suffer from closure
There is nothing to complain about the speed with which the B 27 is being renovated.
For those responsible for the construction work, which begins at 5.30 a.m. and does not end until around 8 p.m., there is praise everywhere.
"They did everything pretty snappy," says Elvira Tetzlaff from the Jet filling station.
This is a super team.
There is also no delay.
At the beginning of the week, the construction site was moved to the south as planned at half-time, and everything should be ready by the end of October.
The courtesy of those responsible for the construction work is also praised, for example when it comes to setting up temporary driveways.
Since the construction site moved south on Monday and the closure of Aspergstraße in Ofterdingen was lifted and thus the connection to Rottenburg exists again, the traffic situation within the village has eased.
Citizens can now drive on both sides of the B 27 from Ofterdingen again.
The evasive traffic through the village seems to be declining.
"There were sometimes considerable complaints," says Florian King, the deputy head of the main office responsible for the traffic management of the renovation.
The residents of Bachsatzstraße, Steinlachstraße, Hafnerstraße and Weiherrain had to struggle with more traffic noise, because many looked for secret routes and trusted their navigation system rather than the signs.
As a result, some trucks frayed in residential areas.
Since the speed limits were also not observed, the municipality increasingly requested the measuring vehicle from Mössingen.
"There were significant exceedances," says King, who himself once informed himself about the situation.
There have already been two to three flashes per minute.
The fastest was at 77 kilometers per hour in the 30 km/h zone.
Since the construction site has moved on, however, it has become quieter.
For the business people on the B 27, it is only a small consolation that the road is now open again for customers from Rottenburg.
Business people do not like to be looked into the cards.
But the fact that the B 27 renovation has led to a slump in sales for them is obvious to anyone you ask.
However, some are more affected and some less.
For those who have less to do with the "end customer", i.e. produce for other companies, the renovation has hardly any consequences.
Thomas Sulz also speaks of a "slight decline at most" at the Maier car dealership, but also admits that of course "the walk-in customers are missing".
The restaurants along the street are the hardest hit.
J. Albert Göhner, owner of the steakhouse, formerly Krone, finds clear words.
This is already life-threatening.
Not only him, but all restaurants were "hit hard".
Customers from Hechingen, Balingen and Rottweil were missing.
We have to be happy about every euro of sales.
He estimates the loss of sales at "well over 50 percent".
The road rehabilitation had set his company "back two years".
He had to lay off half of his employees.
If I had a company with 4,000 employees and half of them had been laid off, politicians would have reacted differently.
Instead, District President Jörg Schmidt responded to a question from Göhner as to whether there could be financial compensation by pointing out that the restaurant would otherwise benefit from the advantages of the location on the B 27.
Göhner knows of other districts where something like this has been handled more generously.
Despite all the complaints, Göhner is sure that his restaurant will continue to exist.
After all, the family business has been located here since 1715, he points to its long history.
He can understand that other regular guests now stop by less frequently because of the complicated traffic management.
If you can't drive here, it's nice somewhere else.
Göhner has no doubt that his regular clientele will return after the end of the renovation work.
Despite the crises with BSE and bird flu, Göhner considers the impact of the B 27 construction work on his customers to be the biggest crisis his restaurant has experienced in its long history.
Six months of construction work, that's brutal.
Laws are constantly being worked on in the name of combating terrorism.
After the latest attacks, Interior Minister de Maizière is now presenting a thick security package.
But what does a toleration status have to do with terror?
And what does the coalition partner say about all this?
Thomas de Maizière is the reconciler.
All his proposals are "politically reasonable" for the coalition partner, says the Federal Minister of the Interior at the presentation of his new security package.
They don't overwhelm anyone.
Other, more far-reaching points would first be discussed within the parties.
I am also involved in this.
As interior minister, however, he was interested in results and a "achievable consensus" within the coalition.
After the recent attacks in Würzburg and Ansbach, de Maizière allowed a little time to pass before presenting his conclusions for security in the republic.
However, these are now all the more extensive.
Some things are already known, announced, targeted: The fact that a new security authority should take care of cracking encrypted communication is not new.
Nor the fact that Germany has to implement several EU requirements on passenger data and weapons law.
The call for more video surveillance and personnel for the security authorities is also not surprising.
In part, de Maizière is making a second attempt at proposals that have so far been impossible to make with the SPD: he wants to criminalize sympathy advertising for terrorist groups and take the German passport from jihadists with dual citizenship.
"These will be difficult points for the SPD," admits the CDU man.
Nevertheless, he considers this to be reasonable and does not demand anything that has no chance with the coalition partner anyway.
De Maizière also presents a few new ideas.
Some of them have it all: He is planning fast-track procedures for deportations and more possibilities for detaining people before deportation.
Refugees who are deliberately brought into the country should first have their smartphones checked and disclose social media accounts for a security check.
In the case of toleration for rejected asylum seekers, he wants to put some in an even worse position than before - such as those who commit crimes or deliberately throw away their papers to conceal their identity.
Some of this is politically and legally sensitive.
Some things also seem half-baked and leave questions unanswered.
And on some points - the unequal treatment of tolerated persons, for example - the question arises: What does this actually have to do with security and terror?
Yes, says de Maizière, it is important to differentiate between the issues of refugees and terror.
But it cannot be denied that the attackers of Ansbach and Würzburg were refugees.
In addition, many people were worried about security in view of the high number of refugees.
And things that deeply concerned people could not be ignored even during election campaigns.
Internal security has come into enormous focus.
First the attacks in the neighborhood: Paris, Copenhagen, Brussels, Nice.
Then the attacks in Würzburg and Ansbach.
There is a great deal of uncertainty.
And yes, there are election campaigns coming up.
The CDU/CSU and SPD are therefore increasingly positioning themselves on the subject of internal security.
In recent days, there has been a lot going on between the two parties.
First a nasty dispute over the equipment of the Federal Police, then over a collection of security policy ideas of some Union interior ministers, in which the department heads also demand a burqa ban and a renunciation of dual citizenship.
Here, too, De Maizière strives for a conciliatory tone.
He does not believe in a departure from the double passport.
We have pacified the discussion in Germany.
It does not make sense to reopen them.
And in the case of a burqa ban, he has constitutional concerns.
Whether his own package is constitutional in all corners and whether it is actually "reasonable" for the coalition partner remains to be seen.
There is a lot in it that could cause controversy.
But the SPD is also currently trying to distinguish itself on the subject of internal security.
Party leader Sigmar Gabriel first cautiously signals willingness to talk and says: "The SPD is ready to talk about anything that helps to further increase security."
Volkswagen is still getting through lightly.
Despite the diesel scandal, delivery figures are rising worldwide.
But things are not running smoothly in all markets.
In the recall there is a fuss about a term.
Volkswagen has made a more subdued start to deliveries in the second half of the year.
Despite the diesel affair, Europe's largest carmaker has continued to post a plus so far this year thanks to its many brands and some well-performing markets.
But in July, the core brand VW weakened, especially in Western Europe, and thus again burdened overall sales, as the Dax-listed company announced.
Worldwide, the VW brand sold 449100 cars in July, 1.8 percent fewer vehicles than in the same month last year.
In Western Europe alone, the second most important market after China, sales were 14 percent below the same month last year.
In the home market of Germany, deliveries fell by almost a sixth.
Brand Sales Director Jürgen Stackmann attributed the weaker figures from July mainly to two fewer sales days in Europe.
In addition, there had been a reluctance to buy in some core markets due to "changed economic conditions".
In addition to the situation surrounding the coup attempt in Turkey, the British vote to leave the EU has also weighed down, a spokeswoman explained.
In the USA, where the emissions affair first escalated, there is also a further decline.
The Chinese market is a great support for VW.
Overall, the mainly affected house brand of Lower Saxony continues to get through the diesel scandal lightly anyway: After the first seven months, there is only a drop in deliveries of 0.9 percent to 3.37 million vehicles.
Group Sales Director Fred Kappler continued to show an increase in sales from January to July.
Volkswagen delivered 1.3 percent more vehicles during this period, 5.904 million worldwide.
Volkswagen had manipulated emissions tests with software.
In Germany alone, VW calls around 2.5 million cars to the workshops for conversion.
In the course of the conversion, VW confirmed that the conversion of the cars has no negative effects.
After the conversion of the vehicles, there is no deterioration in fuel consumption, CO2 emissions or engine performance.
The carmaker issued the customers after the conversion a "guarantee-like" certificate, but do not speak of a "guarantee", as it was said on Friday in business circles.
The reason is legal subtleties.
The "Focus" had reported that Volkswagen now grants its German customers a warranty for converted diesel models.
This was confirmed last Monday by VW representatives in the Federal Ministry of Transport.
The Ministry of Transport confirmed that this meeting took place.
"VW has to fully comply with the requirements of my commission of inquiry and the KBA."
"Deviations from this will not be accepted," said Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), according to the ministry.
VW has assumed the guarantee that there will be no deterioration in fuel consumption, CO2 emissions or engine power after the conversion and that all vehicle values relevant to type approval will remain unchanged.
Volkswagen itself does not use the term "warranty", as it was called in business circles.
With the broad term "warranty", Volkswagen sees the possibility that, for example, customers could come to a workshop half a year after the conversion with an engine failure - and attribute this to the new software, even if the damage has nothing to do with it.
It is also important in the customer's interest to avoid uncertainty about possible warranty regulations in the event of any other damage that has nothing to do with the exhaust gas scandal, as it was said.
That is why VW does not use the term "warranty".
The Raiffeisenbank Gmund am Tegernsee demands penalty interest from rich savers in the future - as the second institution in Germany.
Bank boss Josef Paul said on Thursday: "It's only about 139 customers who park 40 million euros in current or call money accounts."
The Association of German Banks speaks of an isolated case and sees no signal in it: Normal savers would "not have to fear paying penalty interest on their savings".
If banks store money overnight at the European Central Bank (ECB), they have to pay their 0.4 percent penalty interest.
From September, Raiffeisenbank Gmund will demand this fee back from private and corporate customers for deposits over 100,000 euros in current or call money accounts.
"The first 100,000 euros are free."
"The next 100,000 will cost 400 euros a year in the future," said Paul.
He has been guarding 40 million euros for some time, which could be withdrawn from one day to the next and which he could not exploit.
"They are in my central bank account and cause 0.4 percent costs," said the bank boss.
"I can't put down 4,000 euros for every million."
He now passes on the costs according to the polluter-pays principle.
Simply leaving the cash in the vaults of the Raiffeisenbank would be far too dangerous: "I've already experienced four robberies, I don't want the fifth!" said the bank executive.
Most customers understand and switch to other forms of investment.
Only a few migrated to other banks.
The Genossenschaftsverband Bayern declared: "The ECB's extreme monetary policy stance is causing considerable costs for all banks."
To bear them alone is "economically not possible in the long term".
Some German banks have therefore increased their fees for account management, credit cards or transfers.
With penalty interest on deposits from three million euros, the Thüringer Volks- und Raiffeisenbank Altenburger Land had made headlines with its Skatbank branch in 2014.
Michael Kemmer, chief executive of the Association of German Banks, said: "We do not expect private customers to have to pay fees for deposits nationwide, as competition in Germany among banks and savings banks is far too strong."
One banker said that at Tegernsee there is "a clientele that is somewhat more lavishly endowed with assets".
"This can be a problem for a small bank" if it keeps money for free.
Founded in 1911, Genossenschaftsbank Gmund has branches in Bad Wiessee, Rottach-Egern, Kreuth and Tegernsee.
The region is home to well-known actors, athletes and entrepreneurs.
The Genossenschaftsverband Bayern "are currently not aware of any other banks that charge a reimbursement of expenses for deposits from private customers," said spokesman Ernst.
The President of the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR), Uwe Fröhlich, declared at the end of June: "The threshold to go negative towards private customers is very, very high."
The competition is fierce, and there is a threat of investors migrating to the competition.
Customers in Germany will not put up with this across the board.
Destination records: who actually buys records?
Lonely middle-aged men love records.
Before rushing to the comment section to litter it with harsh insults under the pseudonym NotAllLonemenMiddle Age, this statement is derived from current data.
According to YouGov, the much-talked about resurrection of records is not due to a boom in millennials who want to welcome the news of physical items, but to midlife nostalgia.
Those who have recently bought a record are likely to be between the ages of 45 and 54.
In fact, the 18-24 age group is the most unlikely group of buyers.
It's also not hordes of hobby collectors – it has an emotional meaning: older record buyers are more likely to keep their feelings to themselves (56% vs. 53%) and enjoy spending time alone (69% vs. 66%).
But are YouGov's results correct?
If this blog were a news report on TV, the camera would follow me as I walk in the middle of a busy street in Soho, wearing a modest gray suit, and wildly teasing before stopping, holding my hands, and saying something defining like, "So, let's take a closer look."
So, let's take a look.
Even though the heart of Soho is slowly fading its charm — hotels, restaurants, and offices now fill the buildings that once housed independent sellers — there are still a handful of fantastic specialty record stores.
I would probably ask the cameraman to turn off the camera for the next part, in which I stand in close proximity to various men in such shops and try to assess their age and mood by observation.
Stuart from Glasgow, 55, whom I follow from Sister Ray (data count: two young women, three middle-aged men) to Reckless Records (data count: eight middle-aged men, one woman, probably around 20), is in London for a day for a meeting and walks through the shops to fill the few hours.
Is he a collector, I ask?
"I guess," he says.
I have about 3,000 or 4,000 records.
These records, pictured above (he emailed me the snapshot, I didn't follow him home), line the walls of his living room.
The reason he owns such a significant number of albums and singles is because of his disposable income: he is now able to buy records he couldn't afford when they came out and re-buy items he sold when he was young and broke.
"A lot of the things I buy are from the late 60s, early 70s that appeared when I was 11 or 12. Things that I was probably a little too young to buy," he says.
He agrees that those who buy records are more likely to be introverted and enjoy spending time alone, adding, "I don't smoke and I don't drink very much.
That is my vice.
Wez, 25, who works at Sister Ray, also believes that many clients he meets apply to the YouGov profile.
However, he has also noticed a new wave of people who are influenced by the media hpe, people who have heard about the comeback and feel compelled to buy their old records again.
Of the conversations I've had, people usually got rid of their collection around 1998 or 1999.
Customers who once sold their records to buy CDs are now selling their CDs to buy their records again," he says.
That would explain the boom in fans of the record revival of a certain age.
But what about the alleged emotional significance of records?
It only takes a few seconds in a store like Phonica to realize that record stores offer a reassuring community of like-minded people.
According to Wez, some of the older customers took offence at the contactless payment system.
Some record fans feel overwhelmed by the digital world and want to retreat to the stability of familiar record sleeves, objects that evoke happy childhood memories.
"I think sometimes it can be filling a void or owning material possessions as a kind of comfort," Wez says.
That's the case with me as a collector and I think it's the same for a lot of people.
It's an easy way to keep yourself mentally occupied.
"We are like their social workers!" one employee whistles from a stack of records.
An ICM poll in April revealed that nearly 50% of people who bought a record last month haven't listened to it.
The survey also found that 41% own a turntable they never use, while 7% of those who buy a record don't own a turntable.
At this point in the news report, I would probably look very worried as I flip through a pile of bossa nova compilations.
Jonny, 42, who works at Sounds of the Universe (data: three middle-aged men), has noticed a "trophy aspect" of the revival.
"Someone came in here recently and said, 'I don't own a record player, but I'd like to buy a Radiohead record so I can put it on the shelf,'" he says.
This is not a large percentage, but it definitely happens.
More product-heavy, less music-heavy.
We have people who say, "I don't have a record player."
These are younger people, not older people, who are only slowly coming in.
Fopp, who has dedicated almost an entire floor to records, has a more colorful audience than I go in.
There are couples in their 70s, tourists taking photos, teenage boys and middle-aged women.
Even though the atmosphere is a little less relaxed than in the stores mentioned above — Wild Beast's latest synthesizer and sex-packed pop blaring out of the speakers instead of experimental jazz — it's good to see such diversity among customers.
None of them look particularly lonely, but nagging psychological trauma is hard to detect when standing next to someone for 30 seconds.
Elanora, 27, has been walking around the store for a few minutes, looking at the variety of records for sale.
She does window shopping rather than a bulk purchase.
She doesn't earn much, so collecting records isn't really an option, she says.
It costs a lot.
It's easy to listen to music from a computer or otherwise, but the beauty of records is..." she drifts off with an amorous sigh.
I don't know how to explain it - it's really unique.
My last stop is a shop that is said to have inspired a new generation of record lovers: Urban Outfitters.
As I appear to be patterning the jeans hot pants, I watch a group of young teenage girls grouping around Polaroid cameras for a moment before a father and daughter consider buying a Crosley record player.
To the left is a stairwell, a wall full of records by Adele, Jeff Buckley, Amy Winehouse and Fleetwood Mac: a mix of contemporary music and classics, the essential records for an average collection.
No one looks at them - perhaps because they are purely decorative, some so high up that it is impossible to touch them.
It is pure "record art".
But considering that any attraction for these items could mean more money for the industry and send some customers into the depths of Soho for more, there's nothing to complain about.
It's no surprise that a demographic that has more time and money than others is also the one that spends the most on luxury items like records.
Even though my research showed that YouGov's results are correct, they do not take into account, at least in record stores in Soho, the large number of female collectors and record lovers who exist in reality, record stores and online forums.
These people probably work hard at school or in offices.
They certainly don't spend their Thursday mornings strolling through Berwick Street record stores and leafing through records while avoiding the staring gaze of a sinister, 30-year-old fake presenter towering over the shoulders of unsuspecting middle-aged men.
The Greenland shark is the longest living vertebrate - Video report
More scientists say that the Greenland shark has the longest lifespan of any vertebrate on the planet.
Julius Nielsen, who studies sharks, says the record was for a female believed to be between 272 and 512 years old and five meters long.
French court rejects offer to demolish shops in jungle refugee camp
A French court has rejected an offer by authorities in Calais to demolish dozens of makeshift shops and restaurants in the Calais jungle, home to thousands of refugees.
At a court hearing this week, authorities in Calais argued that the state should have the authority to tear down 72 makeshift shops where people inside the camp sell goods ranging from cigarettes to energy drinks, offer hairdressing services or sell tea for 50 cents (40 pence) or simple meals for a few euros in makeshift restaurants.
The prefecture of Calais argued that these places should be demolished because they would represent a parallel economy from which no taxes would be paid and which pose a fire and medical risk.
Humanitarian groups told the court that the shops and restaurants were important because the free meals offered by the state-backed association and other groups would not provide enough food for the growing numbers in the camp.
They also explained that the makeshift shops and restaurants often provide accommodation and free meals for people in need.
A court in Lille ruled that there was no legal basis for the expulsion of people running the 72 temporary shops, but acknowledged that the concerns of the prefecture of Calais were "perfectly understandable."
Judge Jean-François Molla said that the grocery stores, cafes and restaurants would play a much bigger role than just feeding people who "live in extremely precarious conditions."
He said the areas provide quiet meeting places between refugees and volunteers.
One of the places threatened by the crackdown was the camp's Jungle Book Kids' Café, which is run on a non-profit basis and provides 200 meals a day, English and French classes, and advice on asylum matters for the hundreds of vulnerable, unaccompanied minors in the camp.
More than 170,000 people have signed the petition to preserve the Kids' Café.
A letter to the Guardian said the closure "would be a disaster for these children, the youngest of whom are eight years old."
The two aid organizations Help Refugees and L'Auberge des Migrants estimated Friday that the number of people living in the jungle camp had risen to over 9,000 people — the highest number to date — after a sharp increase in new arrivals over the summer.
Despite Olympic disappointment: Martin remains combative
Despite his disappointing performance in the Olympic time trial, professional cyclist Tony Martin does not want to be beaten down.
"I continue to keep an eye on the World Cup, remain confident and continue to fight," the 31-year-old wrote on Facebook on Thursday before leaving Rio de Janeiro.
He has no explanation for his miserable twelfth place at Sugarloaf Mountain.
"I honestly find it hard to comment on yesterday's time trial," Martin said.
He had to analyze calmly what reasons had led to the debacle.
At the World Time Trial Championships in Qatar in October, Martin actually wanted to fight for the title.
"I'm going to take a close look at everything we've changed recently."
"This also includes my position," wrote the three-time time trial world champion, who lost more than three minutes to Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) on Wednesday on the 54.5 km.
Olympics: Professional tennis player Siegemund misses semi-finals
Laura Siegemund's winning streak ended in the quarter-finals of Rio: the world No. 32. from Metzingen missed by a 1:6, 1:6 against Monica Puig (Puerto Rico/WTA-Nr.
34) the semi-finals of the Olympic tennis tournament.
Siegemund, who was plagued by back problems, was only able to get her serve through once and seemed powerless compared to the previous rounds.
On Thursday, medal hopeful Angelique Kerber (Kiel/No. 2) still had the chance to make it into the preliminary round.
The Australian Open winner met Britain's Johanna Konta (No. 10).
Tommy Haas was the last German tennis pro to win a medal (silver) in Sydney in 2000.
The last time there were two German DTB starters in the quarter-finals of the Summer Games was in 1992.
Never before has a German duo been in an Olympic individual semi-final.
Group invests in start-up for live video game broadcasts
Watching other people play video games is a huge trend - Microsoft wants to benefit from that, too.
The technology group buys the start-up Beam, which specializes in this hobby.
How much money flows for the takeover, Microsoft did not share on Thursday.
Beam only launched its offering in January and already has more than 100,000 users.
You can watch others play, but you can also intervene yourself.
For example, they can give players missions and face enemies and provide equipment.
Playful Activision Blizzard is launching a new HD video service for the booming world of esports.
On the way to the global media event, Facebook should help.
The advertising industry is already paying attention.
The employees of the start-up, which is currently based in Seattle in the US state of Washington, are moving to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, California, as Beam co-founder and CEO Matt Salsamendi announced.
For customers, therefore, nothing should change as a result of the takeover.
According to Microsoft, Beam will be integrated into the video game department around the Xbox console.
The market of live streaming video game activities is currently growing rapidly.
Well-known platforms are Twitch and YouTube Gaming.
Twitch was bought in 2014 by online retailer Amazon – for nearly a billion dollars.
YouTube Gaming belongs to Google's parent company Alphabet.
Here comes the enforcement trailer
Germany's speeders have to adjust to the next generation of speedometers: In various federal states, including Hesse and Brandenburg, new flash units are being tested to convict speed offenders particularly effectively.
The futuristic-looking enforcement trailers from Vitronic from Wiesbaden can be used, for example, at accident hotspots where it would be too dangerous for mobile measurement by the police.
For example, at motorway construction sites or bridges to be renovated with a temporary speed limit, there is often no necessary infrastructure to ensure compliance with the speed limit with a stationary speed camera.
However, a permanent mobile setup can be too dangerous or costly.
The Enforcement Trailer is self-sufficient: its battery lasts five days during uninterrupted measurement operation, and the case data is transmitted encrypted via a modem.
With laser measurement technology, all vehicles can also be detected simultaneously across several lanes.
Variable speed limits and passage bans according to time, lane and vehicle class can also be monitored.
According to the manufacturer, the trailer can be moved in the raised state with any car with a towbar.
So that it is not simply stolen, it is lowered in measuring mode, so that the wheels disappear into the armored and, incidentally, bulletproof outer shell.
In addition, a built-in alarm system should protect the speed camera from vandalism.
According to Vitronic, the trailer has been tested in various federal states since 2015 and is now also being used.
Foreign authorities are also flashing with the new technology: France recently ordered 100 units, after ordering 150 last year.
Great Britain takes silver in 7-a-side rugby after Fiji Masterclass takes gold
Britain's impressive performance in 7-a-side rugby came to an abrupt halt at the final hurdle in the form of Fijis in Thursday night's final as they were beaten 43-7 at the Deodoro Stadium here in Rio.
Fiji gave a masterclass in handling, side-stepping, moving up, line running and raw power to win gold – their first Olympic medal of any color.
The defeat was sweetened by the not-too-bad consolation prize of the silver medal – Britain's fourth on the day – and they could be quite proud of their efforts in this tournament, in which they beat New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa.
The clear defeat of the Boks, 7-5 in the semi-finals on the same day could fall back on them in the final.
But regardless, Fiji would have beaten a 15-man team at their best in this form.
It might be a consolation for GB – but probably won't – that at least one Briton will have a gold medal hanging around his neck tomorrow: Fiji's head coach Ben Ryan, the former Wimbledon England boss.
The UK had had a difficult journey.
Eight years ago, under Ryan, they lost every game at the Adelaide Sevens.
Here they lost only one.
This setback will hurt, but the progress is amazing.
Fiji started wonderfully and let GB's attacks bounce off for fun.
For Captain Tom Mitchell and Co., it felt like walking into moving buses. The World Series winners went up 5-0 when Osea Kolinisau slotted over in the corner.
With four minutes remaining, Jerry Tuwai added another attack from the right corner, which he converted.
12-0 and GB barely touched the ball.
A stellar tackle from Mitchell stopped man Leone Nakarawa's mountain from scoring a third goal, but it only stopped Fiji.
In the seventh minute, Jasa Veremalua scored a touchdown in the right corner and it was 0-17 for GB.
Nakarawa added a new one since the re-start and there was still over a minute of playing time... in the first half.
Vatemo Ravouvou raced through more weak tackles of the GB team and stormed to the line to score.
The conversion brought a 29-0 until the break.
It's like Fiji was born to play the 7 while GB is still learning.
And so it is.
GB made fundamental changes at half-time and closed the Fijian gap... for a full four minutes, which was good for the conditions of the first half, until Josua Tuisova ran through after a brilliant intermediate play from Fiji.
Dan Norton scored a try for GB, scoring a touchdown in the left corner for a 36-7, but the game had long been in favor of the South Sea Islanders, whose fans sang, waved flags and danced in the stands.
It was not difficult to admire Fiji's playful approach.
Mata Viliame put the icing on the cake with another try in the final seconds.
The whistle sounded, the Fijis embraced each other and GB kicked devastatingly beaten into the lawn.
Earlier that day, Fiji had beaten Japan 20-5 in the semi-finals and Britain pushed South Africa out of the running in a tight semi-final match – Britain's conversion of the difference.
Kyle Brown put the Boks ahead in the first half, but Dan Norton broke the line with impressive footwork, scoring a goal under the post in the second half.
A brilliant late tackle by Marcus Watson, the brother of Anthony of the English 15-aside team, secured the win - and thus the silver medal.
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning Inspired to Row Victory by Battle with Coach's Cancer
There won't be a more emotinal gold than in these games and that means something.
From the first stroke of the oar to the last, 220 hard hives that go down in history, Helen Glover and Heather Stanning found additional meaning in their golden moment at Estacio da Lagoa.
Even if it was only the two who were at the helm, there were three voices in the boat. The echo of coach Robin Williams was omnipresent as they rowed to the second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the coxless pairs, the first women in the history of British sport to set such a standard.
Their dominance was absolute, after all, their 39th unbeaten appearance, which is also unprecedented.
What we see are two brilliant athletes gliding across the surface with the elegance of swans, which does not fully reflect the nature of the triumph.
Behind every gold in rowing is a battalion of willing helpers who contribute to the incremental progress that makes the difference, and no one has been more helpful than the coach who 30 months ago didn't know if he would survive that day when he was diagnosed with cancer.
As he said, he was risky.
I had bladder cancer that is operable and they did.
If you don't, it will spread everywhere.
It would have been a pretty bad situation.
It changes the view a bit.
Williams was diagnosed in December 2013.
The trio was lucky that he was able to start his treatment in early 2014, out of season, which kept the interruption to a minimum, if that's even the right term in such circumstances.
I needed money, so I had to feel better soon.
It was an incentive.
I was in the hospital walking around the ward -- 20 feet, 30 feet, 50 feet at a time when they said a few steps would be enough.
That's how it begins.
Rowing itself is a challenge, but that makes it even bigger.
In the immediacy of victory, her first thoughts went to Williams, who spent a nerve-wracking morning talking a little more than usual, trying to process his own fears.
Stanning, who was a captain in the Royal Artillery Regiment on a mission in Afghanistan, said: "I was an emotional wreck this week. It might be a bit extreme, but it means so much."
It just repeats how much that means to me, how much I and Helen and Robin have worked.
It's been a fantastic three years with Helen and Robin.
Without Robin we would be nobody, so a massive thank you goes to him. He is the best coach in the world.
I couldn't have asked for a better person to train or a better coach.
Helena Glover and Heather Stanning haven't lost a race in the last five years.
The pair had a tough rhythm that their opponents couldn't keep up with.
Even in the last 500 meters, when the teams from New Zealand and Denmark started to catch up, Stanning and Glover had too much in reserve.
We were very caught up in the moment.
Helen shouted "stay in the process, stay in the process".
It's really important not to get carried away.
We had a good start and at the same time we weren't out to do anything great.
We didn't want fireworks today, we just wanted to get a good result, go out and win the race, which we did.
The couple will take a year off before making decisions about their future.
Glover has to show up at a wedding next week, her own with TV adventurer Steve Backshall.
Now she just wants to enjoy the moment.
I didn't want to say that this was my last race.
That would have meant too much pressure.
In London, it took about six months to realize that I was an Olympic champion.
It was all so new to me and I was so stressed.
Here it took about four minutes.
It feels so much better," she said.
31 years of exemplary clarity
The managing director of the water association "Veitensteingruppe", Ruppert Göller, is retiring.
The association is regarded as "exemplary throughout Bavaria".
A small Franconian drinking water association as a model for the large water producers.
So it was said some time ago in the original sound in a contribution of the Bavarian radio.
A little later, the Water Forum of the Government of Lower Franconia paid tribute to the association.
The work of the Veitenstein Group is considered "exemplary throughout Bavaria".
Behind all this is Rupert Göller, who was an employee of the Zweckverband for 31 years, 28 of them as managing director.
Now he has retired at the age of 65.
The drinking water association of the Veitenstein Group, based in Kottendorf, municipality of Breitbrunn, extracts about 150000 cubic meters of water annually and supplies 32 villages and hamlets with about 5500 inhabitants.
Its member municipalities are Kirchlauter, Breitbrunn, Lauter, Ebelsbach and the town of Baunach.
There are water supply contracts for other cities and municipalities.
The current chairwoman, Breitbrunn's mayor Gertrud Bühl (FW), recalled that Rupert Göller was hired as water warden in 1985 and appointed managing director of the association in 1988.
"His tasks have been very diverse and they have ranged from water pipe construction and maintenance work to office and organisational activities, budget preparation, calculation of fees and contributions to emergency operations on weekends," said the chairwoman.
As outstanding events, she named the commissioning and inauguration of the new wells (1994), land purchases in the area of the new wells (1998) and compensation for farmers, the renovation of the elevated tanks (1999), the acquisition of a new central computer control system (2004) and the partial renewal of water pipes.
There had been no standstill and innovations had been taken up again and again, because water meant life and drinking water was the most important food.
In her laudatory speech, she praised Göller's faithful, reliable and correct service over 31 years.
He has put his heart and soul into his water association and he has literally lived the water association as if it were his own company.
A few weeks ago, as a true practitioner, he was allowed to present the successful concept of the Veitenstein Group for nitrate reduction in front of the water forum of the district of Lower Franconia.
For this he had received a lot of recognition and praise.
Rupert Göller, for his part, praised water warden Alfons Griebel, who had worked with him for 28 years.
He is the best water warden and he was a loyal squire.
Together we were an unbeatable team.
From his point of view, he described the well construction and the restructuring of the special-purpose association as highlights.
The biggest challenge and the most difficult operation, however, was the burst pipe at the elevated tank near Kirchlauter on 3 January.
Here we had to work at minus 17 degrees throughout the night so that the villages could be supplied with water.
Even the supply of Neubrunn could once only be maintained because the elevated tank was filled with hoses from Pettstadt.
The management of the drinking water association was handed over to Daniel Stürmer from Lauter, who succeeds Rupert Göller.
The soprano Anna Netrebko is open about the autism of her son Tiago - and turns to other affected parents: "You have to have the courage to talk about it."
"Medicine has made great progress," the 44-year-old told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
When her son was diagnosed with the disease, she thought she was going to die.
However, the now eight-year-old Tiago has made good progress and is now learning privately in New York, where there are the best therapists.
"To give an example, when I ask him something about two years ago when I sang at La Scala in Milan, he doesn't remember anything," Netrebko said.
But he is the happiest person on earth.
Tiago comes from Netrebko's association with bass-baritone Erwin Schrott.
She is now married to tenor Yusif Eyvazov.
Relationship act in Bargteheide - man shoots at partner
A 35-year-old man shot at his partner on Friday at 10.45 a.m. in an apartment building in Bargteheide (Stormarn district) and fatally injured her.
"The man himself called us and stated that he had shot his partner," said a police spokeswoman.
The perpetrator is on the run, after him will be publicly searched.
Meanwhile nationwide, because Sven S. could be traveling by car.
The man is about 1.80 meters tall, muscular, tanned and has a bald head.
Meanwhile, the police have published a photo of him.
However, it is a few years old.
Meanwhile, the man wears a bald head.
The man should not be addressed directly.
He could still carry the weapon with him, according to the police.
If you see Sven S., you should call 110.
The police speak of a "relationship act".
The victim was born in 1988, the perpetrator in 1981.
The responsible police in Lübeck initially did not want to provide any information on the course of events or the relationship between perpetrator and victim; however, she confirmed that one person had been killed.
"It's a homicide."
"That's all we say at the moment," said a police spokeswoman in Lübeck.
According to eyewitnesses, a special task force (SEK) was at the scene.
Steel - a ray of hope for the German steel industry
The crisis-ridden and energy-intensive German steel industry is spared millions of euros in additional costs.
Financial burdens that threatened the industry from the promotion of green electricity are off the table.
It remains with the exemption from the renewable energy levy in the existing plants for the so-called own electricity production in the German steel industry, said Federal Minister of Economics Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) of the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" (WAZ, Friday edition).
"I'm really happy that we were finally able to achieve this after two years of tough negotiations."
The European Commission had initially planned to ask steel producers who use gases from the blast furnace to generate electricity for their own consumption to pay.
According to the German industry association, the steel industry is threatened with additional costs of 120 to 240 million euros per year.
Gabriel told WAZ that there was now an agreement in principle with the EU Commission after talks with Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
Only when the generators in the steel mills are replaced, an EEG surcharge of 20 percent will be incurred.
But even this is not levied in the steel industry.
IG Metall welcomed Germany's agreement with the EU Commission on self-generation.
Thus, the status quo of the previous regulation is largely fixed.
Gabriel's successful efforts are of particular importance for the steel industry.
"With regard to our 'Steel is the Future' campaign, this is a first step."
"More must follow."
"Climate and employment targets must also be weighed up in the reform of emissions trading," IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann said in Frankfurt.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, the steel industry in Europe has been suffering from overcapacities and considerable price pressure.
Last year, the situation worsened further when China, the world's largest producer, dumped masses of steel on the world market in the face of weakening domestic demand.
European manufacturers accuse Chinese steel companies of price dumping.
In the course of this spring, the situation has eased somewhat.
On the one hand, import duties imposed on imported steel are having an effect, and on the other hand, the economic outlook in China has brightened.
It is unclear how sustainable the price recovery is.
The German industry leader Thyssenkrupp remained cautious on Thursday.
Recently, prices have stagnated again.
The industry is responding to the difficult situation with further cost reductions.
Thyssenkrupp did not want to rule out the closure of individual plants.
Around 86,000 people were employed in the German steel industry at the end of 2015.
In July, German steel producers remain cautious despite rising prices and rising orders.
At 3.4 million tonnes, they produced a good six percent less crude steel than in the same month last year, as the German Steel Federation announced on Friday.
After a brief increase in May, the volume produced has now declined for the second month in a row.
Since the beginning of the year, production has been two percent below the previous year's figure.
The association expects output to rise in the coming months thanks to an improved order situation.
Community, spirit, health: singing is good for seniors
Ursel Kipp has been singing all her life: as a young girl she was in the school choir, she studied music to become a teacher, and today the 78-year-old sings in a senior citizens' choir.
"Singing moves me - emotionally and physically," she describes.
After a rehearsal, she feels balanced, cheerful, and more alive overall, she says.
By the way, she does something good for her health and her mind.
Because singing is a great hobby for seniors from several perspectives, says Erhard Hackler from the German Senior Citizens' League.
Most seniors sing in a choir and share the joy of music with like-minded people, Hackler describes.
By being together regularly, seniors can make and maintain social contacts.
Because often social and family structures dissolve in old age, a choir is then an ideal opportunity to spend time with other people.
Ursel Kipp has also had this experience in her choir: "To coordinate and organize, to be able to rely on others and to learn from each other - a choir is a very special form of being together".
Singing can be exhausting in a positive sense, says Hackler.
Because seniors train a deep and controlled breathing.
Those who regularly challenge their lungs do not get out of breath so quickly in everyday life.
Even when it comes to maintaining the sound of the voice in old age, singing is an optimal hobby.
Singing often has a very special effect on older people, says Ursula Lenz from the Federal Association of Senior Citizens' Organisations.
In the older generations, singing together had a much higher priority, it was part of everyday life, both at school and in leisure time, she explains.
Lenz often observes that singing or listening to songs awakens many memories in older people, often combined with positive feelings of their youth.
Through song lyrics and especially melodies, even people with dementia remember events long ago.
When singing, the head is also required to perform a special performance, explains Lenz.
To concentrate on one's own voice and on a given rhythm at the same time and to adapt to the other singers - that is a great cognitive challenge.
Especially older people who live alone practice not to concentrate only on themselves.
Another positive aspect is the recognition you get from singing in a choir, says Hackler.
An enthusiastic audience is great praise.
Self-esteem also grows through singing in a choir.
To show yourself: If I practice for something for a long time, I get better and grow beyond myself - this experience strengthens.
So there are plenty of good reasons to start singing.
If you want to try a new hobby, you should not hesitate - even if you think you have little talent, advises Lenz.
You don't sing alone - with 50 singing people, who hears when a note goes wrong?
In search of the right offer, seniors have various options, says Hackler.
If someone from your circle of acquaintances sings in a senior choir, you can simply join.
Many cities also offer overviews of the choirs in the area.
If you want to sing in a church choir, you can contact the congregation or the church rector directly.
Many senior choirs can also be found on the Internet.
If you don't have access to the Internet, you can ask family, friends or neighbours for help researching the Internet.
If you feel like singing, you should definitely join a choir, advises Hackler.
Singing is good for the soul and has something liberating - this applies to all ages.
Cats react more sensitively than tomcats to cries of young animals
Biologists in Hanover have investigated the effect of the call of kittens on adult animals.
To their surprise, the meowing did not leave the males cold - however, unlike the females, they always behaved the same.
Female cats can recognize the degree of arousal of kittens by the meowing of the little ones.
They react ten percent faster to sounds of kittens who think they are in great distress, as scientists from the University of Veterinary Medicine and the Hannover Medical School (MHH) have discovered.
Cats also react to the calls of kittens - but always in the same way.
"Apparently, the acoustic differences between the meowing of less and strongly excited young animals are either imperceptible or not significant for the males," said biologist Wiebke Konerding from the MHH.
She is first author of the study, which was published this Friday in the journal "BMC Evolutionary Biology".
In a previous study, the research team had already found that the duration and pitch of the kitten cries differ with the urgency of their need for help.
A total of nine adult males and eight queens from the MHH animal husbandry were observed.
On the one hand, they were played calls from little ones, who were taken out of the litter box for three minutes and separated from mother and siblings.
On the other hand, they were confronted with cries from more aroused kittens, which were additionally lifted.
The researchers consider their results to be meaningful despite the small sample.
"All females, even those who did not yet have their own offspring, reacted differently to the cries," Konerding said.
They turned more quickly to the loudspeaker when it played the calls of the very aroused kittens.
This ability may be innate or develop with sexual maturity.
"One surprise was that the males reacted at all," said the biologist.
In the past, scientists have repeatedly studied the reactions of women and men to baby sounds in humans.
Here, too, some studies showed that women reacted more sensitively to infants, regardless of whether they were already mothers or not, reported biologist Marina Scheumann.
Podolski reaches for Supercup with "Gala"
Hakan Sükür is a football legend in Turkey.
In Turkey, an arrest warrant has been issued against the former football star Hakan Sükür.
He is accused of being a member of a terrorist group.
For the first time since the coup attempt, an important football match will take place in Turkey.
Before the duel between the arch-rivals between Besiktas Istanbul and Lukas Podolski's Galatasaray Istanbul for the Supercup in Konya, the official line is clear: "Business as usual" is announced.
When the state of emergency was imposed after the coup attempt in July, the government asserted that the everyday lives of ordinary citizens should not be affected.
But this does not apply to those suspected of belonging to the movement of the preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is blamed for the coup attempt.
Football is not spared either.
Against the former star kicker Hakan Sükür, the prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant.
Accordingly, Sükür, who now lives in America, is accused of being a member of a terrorist group.
Sükür is said to be a follower of the preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is blamed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the coup attempt.
Although the state of emergency, initially imposed for 90 days, is still valid until October, it actually has virtually no effect on the lives of most Turks.
Erdogan declared the nightly "democracy guards" in public squares across the country to be over on Wednesday.
The sport - like the whole country - is divided into supporters and opponents of Erdogan.
Especially fans of the workers' club Besiktas are traditionally not among the president's friends.
What unites the majority of Turks in view of dramatic experiences in history, however, is the strict rejection of military coups.
Even the fans agree - no matter if their heart beats for Galatasaray or Besiktas.
At cup winner "Gala" it will be particularly important again on Lukas Podolski.
The Cologne native proved his sporting value last season: With 17 goals and nine assists in all competitions, the 31-year-old ended his first season as his club's top scorer.
In the final against Fenerbahce he scored the 1-0 winning goal.
The newspaper "Fanatik" cheered him: "He was the best on the pitch."
He finished the season in an outstanding way and secured the trophy for his team.
Thanks to "Poldi", the disappointing season came to a conciliatory end for the record champions.
After the preliminary round knockout in the Champions League, the "lions" were also eliminated early in the Europa League.
In the Süper Lig it was only enough to rank sixth.
The season was not good.
The cup was the only way to win something.
"That's what we've done and that's the most important thing," Podolski said.
For champion Besiktas the game year went better.
Especially thanks to Mario Gomez, who with 26 goals this season as Süper Lig top scorer laid the foundation for the 14th title.
This is also the reason why fans continue to hope for the return of the 31-year-old.
Gomez, who is under contract with AC Florence and only on loan to Besiktas, had announced after the coup attempt that he would not return after his European Championship holiday because of the political situation in the country.
"If Mario wants to come to us, he just has to say it," the trade magazine "Kicker" quoted club boss Fikret Orman.
To do this, however, the striker would have to be prepared to give up around a third of his annual salary, estimated at 7.5 million euros, Orman clarified: "We cannot pay his salary at Florence".
Despite doping: These athletes still have medal chances at the Olympics in Rio
The 34-year-old Justin Gatlin has already been suspended twice for doping (2001 and 2006).
Rio de Janeiro - Whistleblower Yulia Stepanova is not allowed to start in Rio.
Other convicted athletics sinners can only laugh about it - they fight for medals in Rio.
The topic of doping continues to dominate the headlines at the Olympic Games in Rio.
The Russian swimmer Yulia Yefimova, who had sued for her right to start shortly before the Games after a doping suspension, was mercilessly booed and booed at her start (100 meter breaststroke).
There was a bizarre scene: With a fake smile she had strutted into the hall and had provoked with her appearance.
When it became clear that she would not win gold, the audience broke into a storm of cheers.
But there are many other athletes who will compete at the Olympic Games in Rio despite their doping past.
Here is an overview:
Justin Gatlin (100, 200, 4x100 m relay/USA): The 34-year-old is one of the most controversial figures in athletics.
He has already been banned twice for doping (2001 and 2006 to 2010).
Since his ban, the Olympic champion of 2004 and former world champion runs even faster than before, he is the number one in the world over 100 m in 9.80 seconds and is considered the biggest challenger to Usain Bolt.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (100, 4x100m relay/Jamaica): The two-time Olympic champion and seven-time world champion had to serve a six-month ban in 2010 after she was found to have taken the painkiller oxycodone.
She had severe toothache after an operation, defended the 29-year-old.
Sandra Perkovic (discus/Croatia): In 2011, the Olympic champion of 2012, world champion of 2013 and European champion from 2010 to 2016 tested positive for the banned stimulant methylhexanamine.
Perkovic denied knowingly taking it and was banned for six months.
The four furthest throws this year go to the account of the big gold favorite.
LaShawn Merritt (200, 400, 4x400m relay/USA): The Beijing Olympic champion and two-time world champion over 400m, tested positive in 2010 and was banned for 21 months.
A means for penis enlargement was responsible, Merritt asserted.
This year, the 30-year-old is the fastest man in the world so far over 200 and 400 m.
Ivan Tikhon (hammer throw, Belarus): Hardly any other athlete has been stripped of so many medals retrospectively.
Tikhon lost his 2005 world title nine years later after he was found to have testosterone doping.
The now 40-year-old also had to give up Olympic silver in 2004 because of steroid doping and the European title in 2006 because of testosterone abuse.
The bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games was also revoked due to a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
With 80.04 m he is ranked second in the world.
Liu Hong (20 km walk, China): The world record holder and gold favourite only tested positive in May, but is still allowed to start in Rio.
In the case of the 29-year-old world champion, evidence of taking a banned dietary supplement was found, the ban of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA was mild and expired on July 13.
Bomb terror in Thailand - Austrian injured - Several dead
The Austrian embassy in Thailand is in contact with the woman, Foreign Ministry spokesman Thomas Schnöll said Friday morning.
She had suffered cuts and had been treated in the hospital, but had already been able to leave.
She had planned her trip home for the beginning of September.
Whether Austrian citizens are also affected by the further explosions on the holiday island of Phuket and in the southern cities of Surat Thani, Phang Nga, Trang and Chumphon is still unclear.
The Foreign Ministry is in constant contact with the local authorities in this regard, said Schnöll.
In Hua Hin, about 200 kilometers south of the capital Bangkok, two bombs exploded on Thursday evening in a nightlife district.
According to police, a Thai woman was killed and about 20 people were injured, including the Austrian, three Germans, three Dutch and three Italians.
Friday morning, two explosive devices went off again, killing another person, according to the authorities.
A bomb explosion was also reported from Phuket in the morning.
In the case of the detonation near the popular with holidaymakers beach Patong was injured, according to police, a taxi driver.
In Surat Thani, on the southeast coast of the country, another bomb exploded, killing a city employee.
According to the authorities, the explosive device went into the air in a flower bed in front of the coastal police station.
Finally, detonations in Phang Nga and Trang on the southwest coast and in Chumphon on the southeast coast caused several injuries.
One assumes a connection with the explosions in Hua Hin, it said.
"The bombings bear the same signature," army general Danai Kritmethavee told reporters Friday morning.
"We assume that this is a coordinated attack."
It is too early to comment on possible motives - but it is likely to be the actions of Muslim rebels.
Thai media also wanted to see a pattern in the attacks that is typical of the bomb attacks by Muslim separatists in the south of the country.
Thai police, on the other hand, said the attacks were not related to the Islamist insurgency or international terrorism.
"This is just local sabotage limited to limited areas and provinces," said a spokesman in Bangkok.
Rather, it is assumed that the bombs were planted by opponents of the ruling military junta.
In recent days, the authorities have received intelligence information about imminent attacks in the south of the country – but they were not informed about the exact time and places.
It is still unclear which group is behind the attacks.
Police instructed officers across the country to step up security around key government buildings, as well as airports, train stations, tourist attractions, restaurants and entertainment districts.
In Thailand there are always smaller bomb attacks, but they are usually not directed against tourists.
Hua Hin is home to a palace that was used for years by Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
After the bomb explosions, the Austrian Foreign Ministry recommends on its homepage to follow the instructions of the Thai security authorities unconditionally.
High security risk (security level 3) applies to the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and Songhkla as well as Preah Vihear and the surrounding area.
After clashes between security forces and Muslim populations, unnecessary travel to these provinces is discouraged.
Increased security risk (security level 2) applies to the rest of the country.
The attacks on Thursday and Friday came days after a controversial referendum on a constitution drafted by the military junta.
This gives the military great influence in the coming years.
Junta leader and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the bombs were an attempt to wreak havoc as the country moves toward stability, improving the economy and tourism.
The military UNTA, which seized power in 2014 after a period of bloody unrest, takes credit for having restored stability and order to the kingdom.
However, the military has also failed to get a grip on the uprising of Muslim rebels that has been smouldering for years in the far south of the country.
More than 6500 people have already been killed in the conflict.
Almost a year ago, 20 people were killed in an attack at a popular Hindu shrine in Bangkok - most of them foreign tourists.
It was the bloodiest attack in the country's recent history.
The right-wing "Identitarian Movement" has been targeted by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
After several state offices, the constitutional protectors in the federal government have also placed the group under observation.
"We see in the 'Identitarian movement' indications of efforts against the free democratic basic order," said the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, of the German Press Agency in Berlin.
Thus, immigrants of Islamic faith or from the Middle East are defamed in an extremist manner.
That's why we're watching the movement now.
The "Identitarian Movement" is a group with French roots, which has also been active in Germany since 2012.
It opposes "multicultural madness", "uncontrolled mass immigration" and the "loss of one's own identity through foreign infiltration".
Constitutional protectors in nine federal states - Bremen, Bavaria, Hesse, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, NRW, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Thuringia - are already monitoring the "Identitarians".
Maaßen said his authority had closely coordinated with the state offices in the decision.
"Groups such as the 'Identitarian Movement' are trying to pick up their target group where it stands," said the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
In general, extremists try to address them with youth-friendly language, often with pop music.
Islamists as well as right-wing extremists would do so.
This is not a fussy advertisement for one's own cause.
The propaganda should appeal to people emotionally.
Young people are particularly vulnerable.
This is dangerous.
Recently, there had been reports from several federal states about contacts of the "Identitarians" to AfD politicians.
Maaßen said he had no knowledge of this.
For the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, possible contacts of this kind are only relevant at a certain point.
It depends on whether the respective party - in this case the AfD - changes its direction through certain people who are extremist and thus becomes extremist.
The decisive factor is therefore whether such persons have a controlling influence on the party.
This is not apparent.
With a view to the significant increase in right-wing crimes and attacks on asylum seekers and refugee shelters, Maassen said that he would not yet speak of new right-wing terrorism in this context.
But we have noticed in recent years that there can be right-wing terrorist structures.
There was the group 'Old School Society' or the Freitaler Group.
It may well be that other right-wing terrorist groups or small groups are formed, which plan attacks against asylum seekers, against refugee homes or attacks for other right-wing extremist motives.
However, a Germany-wide or Europe-wide control of right-wing terrorism is not discernible.
The previous groups had emerged at the regional level or in social networks.
Maaßen expressed concern that many attacks were carried out by people who had not previously appeared in the right-wing scene.
That is the worrying thing.
Many of the suspects in attacks on asylum shelters were not previously known as criminals, politically motivated criminals or supporters of the right-wing scene.
"Many people have committed crimes who previously had nothing to do with right-wing extremists, who may have been politically indifferent or, for example, voted for the CDU, SPD or the Left Party, but who then radicalized themselves through right-wing extremist propaganda."
Rio 2016: Robel Kiros Habte becomes an internet hit
The Olympic athletes or world records do not always determine the headlines at the Olympic Games.
This is shown by the courageous performance of Robel Kiros Habte at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In the Aquatics Center, the slightly overweight swimmer from Ethiopia swam so slowly that he was temporarily no longer seen in the TV pictures.
It simply disappeared - no matter how far the cutout was selected.
In the social networks, Habte subsequently became a viral Internet hit.
In fact, the 24-year-old finished his heat 48 seconds behind and finished 59th out of 59 starters.
But it was rather his not exactly sporty figure that attracted the attention of the international media.
Why is the 24-year-old still taking part in the Olympic Games?
The Ethiopian received a special starting right from the International Swimming Federation.
This is distributed to make swimming better known in underrepresented countries.
Since most athletes run in Ethiopia, Habte just wanted to do something different.
Preparation is everything: Robel Kiros Habte is getting ready for the big race.
The first nicknames quickly made the rounds.
Some media referred to him as "Robel the Whale".
In reference to a "prosperity belly", the English tabloid "The Sun" made fun of him with "Dad Bod".
His time, he struck with only one minute and almost five seconds over the 100 meter freestyle, did not matter.
Comparisons with "Eric the Eel" were also drawn.
At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Eric Moussambani's run attracted media attention.
Unforgettable was the appearance of the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, when he had to compete alone in a heat over 100 meters freestyle.
Frenetically, Moussambani was cheered on at that time.
The then 22-year-old only learned to swim eight months before the Olympics and had never covered such a long distance before the competition.
A frontline seat to the stunning architecture of the Central Library of Los Angeles
Learn about the history of the downtown Central Library as the Society of Architectural Historians/Southern California Chapter holds a salon with Arnold Schwartzman and Stephen Gee, authors of the new book, "Los Angeles Central Library: A History of its Art and Architecture."
It is planned that Gee and Schwartmann will discuss and share images of the 1926 Bertram Goodhue design as well as the 1993 restoration and addition by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates.
The Salon is scheduled for August 21 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Salle Moderne at Art Deco Southwestern School of Law, (formerly Bullocks Wilshire), 3050 Wilshire Blvd.
Visitors can tour the central hall, the style rooms, the cactus lounge and the tea room.
Advance tickets only; SAH/SCC members, $15; Non-members, $25.
An open industrial loft in DTLA gets a cozy makeover
We celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Central Library of L.A. - what else? - a new book
Geretsried - The owner of a shop on Neuer Platz has been robbed.
According to police, the 67-year-old Geretsriederin had left her shop on Monday at 5:30 p.m. and forgot to close a window on the ground floor.
When she returned the next morning at around 8.15 a.m., about 250 euros had disappeared from the cash register.
Traces of the perpetrator could not be found.
Video surveillance is also not available.
Trump does not see the impending election defeat so closely
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Florida.
If the election to the US president does not work, Donald Trump already has an alternative idea.
He then just goes on vacation.
If Donald Trump loses the US presidential elections in November, he would not care: "Ultimately, it will either work, or I have a very, very nice, long vacation," said the Republican candidate in a telephone interview with the US television channel CNBC.
If it is not enough for him in the end for reasons of political correctness, that is fine, said Trump.
He described US President Barack Obama and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as the founders of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS).
Within his party, more and more resistance has recently formed.
Swiss Post enters the trade with electric vans
An electric delivery vehicle of Deutsche Post in action.
The interest of other companies in the vehicle is apparently great.
Swiss Post plans to sell its StreetScooter electric vehicle as well.
In the near future, the group wants to start trading with the van.
Swiss Post wants to offer its electric vans on the free car market from next year.
"We want to get into the sale to third parties," said a Post spokesman on Friday.
The company has been examining for months whether it should sell its self-developed StreetScooter, with which letters and parcels are delivered, to other companies.
Post board member Jürgen Gerdes had said that there were always inquiries, for example from craftsmen.
According to information from the news magazine "Der Spiegel", the Bonn-based group wants to enter the mass production of the vehicles shortly.
In Swiss Post's own production facility, the company plans to build up to 10,000 cars per year and shift.
Gerdes had announced that the group wanted to significantly expand its fleet of electric cars and was aiming for a complete conversion to environmentally friendly vehicles in the long term.
"We will take a very, very robust step towards 2020," he said at the end of July.
I can imagine that we will convert the entire fleet.
The StreetScooter has been active on Germany's roads since 2014.
GfK management steps down after disappointing business figures
The consumer research company GfK is replacing its boss Matthias Hartmann.
The resignations came suddenly - but not entirely surprising.
The difficult situation of the market research company GfK suggested that the longer the successes he promised, the more uncertain the chair of CEO Matthias Hartmann becomes.
Turbulence at the top of the Nuremberg-based market research company GfK: After another disappointing business figures and the resignation of the company management, the world's number five in the industry is facing a new beginning in terms of personnel.
GfK CEO wants to leave the company at the end of the year.
The Chairman of the GfK Supervisory Board, Arno Mahlert, will leave the Supervisory Board with effect from 12 September.
Gerhard Hausruckinger, a member of the Management Board, will take over the leadership of the Management Board as of 1 September, the company announced.
He is to officially take over the function of a "spokesman of the board" until a successor for Hartmann is found.
As a reason for the resignations, the company cited "different views" on the long-term business policy orientation.
A company spokesman did not want to give details on Friday.
Who will lead the market research company in the future, is currently still unclear.
In investor circles, it was said on Friday that shareholders had recently been disappointed by the continuing lack of success of the restructuring initiated years ago.
Mr. Hartmann has been at the helm of GfK since 2011.
"However, the fruits of the restructuring are still not visible even after 5 years," it said.
In view of the recent poor GfK business figures, every shareholder will become restless at some point.
"If that were the case with BMW, the Quandts would do the same," it said.
After setbacks in the previous quarters, the company had not been able to stop its loss-making run in the second quarter of 2016.
At 361.2 million euros, sales were 6.1 percent below the level of the comparable prior-year quarter.
In relation to the first half of the year, sales shrank by 3.4 percent to 721.2 million euros.
Profit in the second quarter was mainly impacted by the lower value of the company in view of its difficult economic situation.
The goodwill amortization of EUR 139 million that became necessary in the Consumer Experience division resulted in a net loss of EUR 148.2 million for the Group.
In the second quarter of 2015, GfK had generated a consolidated profit of EUR 19.7 million.
Accidents - Bus slips in Krummhörn in Graben: Eight injured
In an accident of a coach with 43 seniors as passengers, eight people were injured on Thursday in Krummhörn (Aurich district).
Two of the occupants suffered serious injuries, police said.
The 66-year-old driver of the bus of a travel company from Eisenach had to dodge, according to their information, an oncoming truck, which drove partly on the opposite lane.
The bus came off the road to the right and slid into a ditch, as a spokeswoman for the police Aurich/Wittmund reported.
"Due to the location of the bus, people could not leave the bus on their own," she said.
The fire brigade freed the occupants.
Six ambulances and an ambulance came to the scene of the accident on Landesstraße 2.
The uninjured passengers were brought back to the Krummhörn district of Pewsum by bus.
There they should wait for a replacement bus from the travel company.
The investigators asked the truck driver and possible witnesses to report to the police.
From 1 October 2016, the fees per cubic metre of wastewater for the Neudorf/Reuth/Welschenkahl wastewater treatment plant will be EUR 3.44 instead of the previous EUR 2.10; for Zultenberg/Lindenberg/Lopp 3.36 euros (previously 2.26 euros) and for Azendorf 3.64 euros (previously 2.18 euros).
At the plant in Azendorf, the wastewater fee will increase again at the latest when appropriate improvement measures become necessary.
According to a rough calculation, the wastewater price in Azendorf will then be 4.37 euros per cubic meter.
As Mayor Bernd Steinhäuser (CSU) reported, it was found during the approval of the budget by the district office Kulmbach that there were shortfalls for these sewage plants.
On the basis of legal foundations, Markt Kasendorf is obliged to operate the plants cost-effectively.
From 1 October 2016, citizens as well as commercial and industrial companies from Welschenkahl, Neudorf, Reuth, Azendorf, Lopp, Lindenberg and Zultenberg will have to dig deeper into their wallets.
The fee increases are between 48 and 67 percent.
As head of administration Herbert Schmidt pointed out to the committee, a recalculation of the fees for the wastewater plants of the market town was necessary.
In the period from October 2016 to September 2020, over- or under-coverage from the previous calculation period must also be compensated.
Schmidt justified the serious fee increases with the fact that all three wastewater plants were relatively small facilities with a very low waste water production, which was between 6800 and 12000 cubic meters per year.
For example, due to the low distribution basis, expenses for necessary repairs of several thousand euros would have a serious impact.
In addition, the volume of wastewater in all three plants is declining slightly.
Furthermore, in the past calculation period, all three plants incurred considerable renovation and repair costs, not least because of their age.
The plant in Azendorf is almost 30 years old, the plants for Welschenkahl, Neudorf and Reuth as well as Zultenberg, Lindenberg and Lopp almost 20 years.
Schmidt pointed out that the mechanical ventilation system in the Azendorf wastewater plant had to be replaced due to damage.
At the Welschenkahl pumping station, the almost 20-year-old conveyor systems had to be completely overhauled and at the Lopp pond treatment plant, after almost 20 years of operation, the first sewage pond had to be dredged, the sewage sludge disposed of and an additional aeration option installed in order to be able to comply with the water law requirements in the future.
Schmidt: "In addition to these extraordinary expenses, there were the updated care and maintenance costs, which must be taken into account accordingly in the new calculation period."
The same applies to electricity costs, which were still significantly below the current level in the previous calculation in 2011/2012.
Steinhäuser made it clear that with the low amount of wastewater in the three plants, the expenses for operation and maintenance "fully penetrate".
Schmidt added that the market town had been spared large maintenance costs for the wastewater plants over the past 20 years.
According to Steinhäuser, the situation for these plants will continue to be precarious in the long term, especially since the supply area of the Friesenbachtal wastewater association cannot be expanded to include these plants because they are loss-making facilities.
Bulgaria records inflation for the first time in 8 months
National statistics show that inflation in Bulgaria was 1% on a monthly basis in July.
This is the highest figure (since June 2012) and the first above zero since October last year, when a positive 0.2% was recorded.
The annual average inflation of the last 12 months (August 2015 - July 2016) compared to the previous 12 months (August 2014 - July 2015) as measured by the CPI was -0.8%.
The consumer price index in July 2016 compared to June 2016 was 101.0%, i.e. monthly inflation was 1.0%.
The inflation rate since the beginning of the year (July 2016 compared to December 2015) was -0.2% and annual inflation in July 2016 compared to July 2015 was -0.2%.
In July 2016, a month-on-month increase was observed for the following groups of consumer goods: food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.7%); transport (1.8%); leisure and culture (6.3%); restaurants and hotels (1.2%); miscellaneous goods and services (0.3%).
Prices fell for clothing and footwear (2.2%); furniture, household appliances and routine maintenance (0.5%); Health (0.1%).
Prices remained the same as in the previous month for alcoholic beverages and tobacco; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; Communication; and education unchanged.
Snapchat "anime" effect criticized as Asian caricature
Snapchat says this filter is anime-inspired, but some observers say it's insensitive to race.
With its filtering tool, Snapchat enables around 150 million daily users to change reality and play with identities in ways that border on the absurd.
You can turn into a pineapple, a dog or a figure that could be from a Roy Lichtenstein painting.
The filters are blunt, feature-twisting tools that generate more than 30 million improved selfies per day.
All missteps are made public.
Snapchat filters have drawn criticism in the past, accusing them of promoting blackface or promoting white skin as an ideal of beauty.
When it suggested a filter to some users this week that gave them slit eyes, false teeth and puffy cheeks, some critics called it a racist caricature of Asians - "yellowface".
They wondered if these repeated controversies pointed to a bigger problem the company has with diversity.
The news and outrage spread widely on Wednesday, with reports from The Verge and Motherboard, a day after Snapchat said it had disabled the feature.
The company offered an apology: The filter was intended as a tribute to anime characters, not as a caricature of Asians.
But outsiders who have experienced racism were reminded by the filter of hurtful clichés.
Others strongly rejected the anime comparison.
In an email, Grace Sparapani, a Korean-American art student whose tweet about the photos was widely circulated, wrote that the filter was "hurtful and uncomfortable, to say the least."
She added that "it is difficult to argue with the juxtaposition of a very disgusting Asian cartoon and the filtering effects.
It shows that the filter is not yellow-faced, but that the yellow-faced has been pulled to the pejorative extreme.
Snapchat isn't the only company crossing these cultural tripwires.
American culture seems to be embroiled in an endless struggle for diversity and inclusion, from conference rooms to Hollywood and the devices we all hold.
And Snapchat's large audience of young people — who are more diverse than their older counterparts when it comes to race — might be more likely to expect sensitivity.
If one of Snapchat's filters creates an image that is offensive to a user, "it's much harder for such things to go unnoticed than it used to be," 25-year-old Katie Zhu said in an interview on Thursday.
On Thursday, Zhu, who works as a product manager and engineer for Medium, decided to delete her Snapchat account, urging others to do the same.
In an essay for Medium and in a phone interview, she said she believes race-related controversies reflect a lack of diversity in Snapchat's hiring practices.
Zhu criticized the largely white, male-only leadership and ended her essay with a hashtag: #DeleteSnapchat.
"Either they don't have diverse representation of people of color in their workforce so they can make such decisions," said the Chinese-American Zhu, "or they have people of different skin colors who work there but aren't in positions where they feel safe or comfortable to say something against it."
Others share their opinion, a complaint that Snapchat has largely left unanswered.
The company does not publish figures on the diversity of its workforce and points to its status as a private company.
On Thursday, Snapchat declined to discuss the cultural backgrounds of its employees, but according to a spokesperson, the company recently hired a hiring manager focused on underrepresented populations and internal integration efforts.
For her part, Zhu said she will leave her Snapchat account closed, adding, "I wonder if they need more users like us to be able to say that's not OK."
Military leadership falsifies ISIS intelligence information, congressional committee finds
Military personnel from the United States Central Command altered intelligence to paint a more optimistic picture of the war against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria than actual conditions on the ground would have allowed, a congressional investigative committee reported in a report on Thursday.
The preliminary report, prepared by a task force of Republican members of the Armed Services Committee, Intelligence Committee, and the Defense Budget Committee, reports widespread dissatisfaction among Central Command intelligence analysts who reported how superiors changed their views on American efforts to fight the Islamic State.
The Central Command, or Cencom for short, is the military headquarters in Tampa, Florida, that directs American military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.
"Intelligence typically nodded off by senior Centcom commanders regularly painted a more positive picture of America's efforts against terrorism than actual conditions on the ground would have allowed, and was consistently more positive than analysis by other intelligence agencies," a newspaper article quoted the report as saying.
"What happened at Centcom is unacceptable — our soldiers suffer when bad analysis is presented to our political leaders," said Ken Calvert, Republican member of the House of Representatives.
The leadership mistakes in Centcom extend to the top of the organization.
The ten-page report details persistent problems in 2014 and 2015 in descriptions and analyses of US efforts in training Iraqi forces.
While it provides no direct evidence that Obama officials have given instructions to change the reports, it shows how analysts faced pressure from their superiors to paint a more optimistic picture of the threat to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
"During the first half of 2015, many Central Command press releases, statements, and congressional statements were significantly more positive than they indicate," the report noted.
For example, a Centcom official publicly announced that a military recapture of Mosul could begin as early as April or May 2015.
Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, remains under Islamic State control.
"After months of investigation, that much is clear," Mike Pompeo, Republican congressman from Kansas, said in a statement.
From mid-2014 to mid-2015, Central Command leaders altered intelligence reports to downplay the threat posed by ISIS in Iraq.
The Republicans created the task force after being told that analysts were concerned about the manipulation of reports on the Islamic State.
The report, released on Thursday, will be complemented by more detailed findings as the investigation continues.
In addition, further investigations of the Centcom reports by the Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense are underway.
Democratic members of the intelligence committee released their own findings Thursday, which were consistent with some of the Republican task force's conclusions.
"In 2014 and 2015, Centcom created an overly limited process for conducting intelligence assessments of ISIL and Iraqi security services," senior Democrat on the committee, House member Adam B. Schiff, said in a statement.
This process, Mr. Schiff said, "delayed the release of intelligence reports," damaged morale among analysts, and "left undue room for dissent."
But Mr. Schiff and the Democrats said they found no evidence of White House intervention among Centcom analysts regarding a "particular political opinion."
The preliminary findings of the congressional investigation were released Tuesday by The Daily Beast.
Last August, the New York Times reported on investigations by the Pentagon's inspector general following complaints from Centcom analysts.
Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Evans, a Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that the Department of Defense would not comment on congressional reports while the inspector general's investigation was ongoing.
But he also stated that "experts sometimes have divergent opinions on the interpretation of complex data, and that the intelligence community and the Department of Defense welcome a controversial discussion of these important national defense issues."
The investigation has repercussions beyond the question of a successful US-led air campaign in Iraq and Syria (a claim now being made by a growing number of Defense Department officials).
Last year's allegations, however, have raised the question of how President Obama can rely on Central Command for honest assessments of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other crisis regions.
The criticism of the secret information about the Islamic State is reminiscent of disputes more than a decade ago, when a Centcom analyst, Gregory Hooker, wrote a paper about how, contrary to the recommendations of many analysts, the then administration of George W. Bush envisaged only a small occupation force in Iraq and spent little time worrying about the consequences of the 2003 invasion.
Mr. Hooker also played a key role in the insurgency against current coverage of the Islamic State.
Over the past year, Mr. Hooker's team has determined that, contrary to government statements, airstrikes against Islamic State-held refineries would not have a significant impact on the terrorist group's financial position, as they had commissioned makeshift refineries to sell oil on the black market.
However, that finding was not made public, the Times reported in September.
Centcom's commander at the time, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, was criticized by members of the legislature for his overly positive assessment of the war situation at a Senate hearing.
General Austin retired in April and was assigned to Central Command by Gen. Joseph L. Votel.
USA win fourth match in women's field hockey, a showdown with Great Britain imminent
A day after scoring three goals during a 6-1 win over Japan, Katie Bam also scored the first two goals for the American women's field hockey team in a match on Thursday against India, which the Americans won 3-0.
Five goals in two games was supposed to be a memorable achievement, but Bam, 27, said she couldn't remember ever doing that.
"I have no idea," she said.
I'm not one of those people who remember their goals.
However, she does know this: The Americans are 4-0 in the Olympic competition and are level in their group with the British in first place, who remain unbeaten after their 2-0 victory against Japan.
Britain and the United States will meet on Saturday in the final game of the first round.
Both teams have already qualified for the quarter-finals, and the match will decide which of the two will finish first and second in their group of six teams.
The winner will avoid the strong Dutch women who lead the other group a little longer.
Whatever the outcome of Saturday's game, the Americans' success story has caused a surprising stir four years after finishing last of 12 at the last London Games.
Bam was part of this team.
She grew up in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and had a hockey stick in her hands for the first time at the age of three (her two older sisters played the sport at Drexel University), at the age of 16 she became a national player of the USA, the youngest in the history of the team.
She missed the 2008 Olympics because she failed to qualify for the squad.
Then came 2012, when everything went wrong for her and her team.
The following year, Craig Parnham, an Englishman, became coach of the national team and things began to change for the better.
"A culture change, a mental change, and a physical change," Bam said.
We didn't have the workload in London that we have now.
We have been able to completely turn things around.
On Thursday night, Bam opened the scoring in the first half of the game with a backhand shot from close range.
India had gone into the match without a win in the tournament, but the team were surprisingly tough, holding the score from 1-0 until the third quarter until Bam took the game into their hands.
She sprinted with the flat ball over the left flank, then moved to the middle and slipped the ball into the goal to give the Americans a 2-0 lead.
Melissa Gonzalez scored the final goal midway through the final quarter.
The shutout was the first of the entire tournament for U.S. goaltender Jackie Briggs, who had scored one goal in each of the previous games.
She has a run.
Just like Bam.
"We're in a good position," Parnham said, but how well will depend on the outcome of the next game on Saturday.
In the midst of the rage of the Olympic Games, the Zen of the trampoline
Wherever you are, whatever time it is, it's the Olympics.
The events in Rio de Janeiro feel constant and inevitable, a frenzied relay race between competition and pursuit.
It's as if the Olympic torch itself were a burning stick, passed from crossbowman to swimmer to gymnast to triathlete.
You can't turn on the TV, read a newspaper, or listen to your neighbor talking in the queue at the coffee shop without hearing about Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, or the argument between Michael Phelps and Chad le Clos.
And then there's Logan Dooley.
Dooley, who is at the Olympics for the first time and is a heartthrob with dimples, could well have been under those well-known names broadcast at prime time, built up by sponsors and feel-good TV commercials, if he were a swimmer, gymnast or even fencer.
But Dooley, 28, of Lake Forest, California, is competing for gold in Olympic trampoline gymnastics.
The Olympic flame does not illuminate every event in the same way.
Further from the center, partly in the shade, are the sports that are not generally recognized: air pistol shooting, archery, badminton, taekwondo.
We will always have breaststroke and may it prevail for a long time.
But if I could humbly make arguments for my particular favorite, let me draw attention to the discreet charm of the trampoline.
Although trampolining has been an Olympic event since 2000, when it debuted in Sydney, it has been so sparsely noticed over the past 16 years that many of those I interviewed did not know it was an Olympic sport at all.
This could also be regional ignorance.
Although the U.S. sent athletes to compete, it has never won a medal in trampolining and until 2012 had an athlete who made it to the finals.
The Chinese and the Russians tend to share the prices for the men and the Chinese and the Canadians for the women.
Dong Dong from China and Rosie MacLennan from Canada will defend their gold medal from London this year.
Trampolining has a certain outsider charm, partly because to the unenlightened ear it sounds more fitting for a clown school than the one for the Olympics.
At this point, I should admit that I am not an expert, but just an earthbound enthusiast.
It has humorous potential — the cartoonish tremor of its never-ending impact — but also the grace of gymnastics and diving, the two sports it essentially unites.
The word "trampoline" comes from the Spanish El trampoline, which means "springboard."
Aspiring winners jump on a gigantic trampoline, shoot nearly 30 feet into the air and must make a series of falling movements (turning, pike and somersaults) before landing on their feet.
According to the official Olympic program, they are evaluated according to execution, degree of difficulty and "flight time".
Thirty-two athletes from 17 countries, 16 men and 16 women, will compete in Rio.
The most common Olympic vector is straight ahead.
Medal hopefuls must go further, faster, up and over in their quest for gold, sometimes to the finish, sometimes back and forth, up and down the playground.
They are not only chasing the finish line or the exit wall, but also another sneering goal in the television broadcast: that of the world or the Olympic record.
The purposeful pursuit is noble, admirable, even fanatical - and it is enough to move even a spectator to tears.
But it's also what I find a bit tiring even when watching these games.
The trampoline offers a breathing space from this.
The vector of the trampoline jumper is above.
Moving forward is not the goal.
He or she bounces off, seemingly weightless like an astronaut, goes up, then down, then effortlessly back up.
Here, too, there is competition, of course not without difficulty, but during the exercise there is no frantic attack on the target, no bulging into the distance, only the dreamy, elegant suspension of time and gravity.
It is as Zen as the competition at the Olympic Games can be.
The women's qualifiers and finals will take place on Friday afternoon, streaming at 13:00 Eastern Time; those of the men on Saturday, also at 13.00.
NBC will broadcast the finals as part of an afternoon block on both days starting at 2 p.m.
In the midst of the Olympic mania, they promise a quiet, nice moment, one that is likely to be overlooked in the general turmoil.
If the increase in consciousness can only be achieved by gawking and objectifying male athletes - as the male US gymnasts recently suggested, according to The Wall Street Journal - then Mr. Dooley awaits his new fan base struggling for air.
"A generation protests" in Ethiopia, Long an ally of the US
Violent protests in Ethiopia
Protesters demanding political change in Ethiopia met with violent resistance from the government.
Witnesses say that dozens of protesters were killed in exchanges of fire during clashes with police.
Is Ethiopia collapsing?
Over the past decade, it has been one of Africa's most stable countries, a solid ally of the West with a fast-growing economy.
But in recent months, anti-government protests have shaken the country and spread to more and more areas.
Last week, thousands of people took to the streets demanding fundamental political change.
The government's response was ruthless, according to human rights organizations.
Witnesses said police shot and killed dozens of unarmed protesters.
Circulating videos of the protests, believed to be from last year or early this year, show security guards beating young people with sticks while they were forced to do a handstand against a wall.
The head of the UN human rights agency is now demanding a thorough investigation.
"It has always been difficult to hold this country together and in the future it will be even more difficult," Rashid Abdi, the project manager of the Horn of Africa told the International Crisis Group, a research group.
Ethiopia is the most populous country in Africa after Nigeria and its stability is valued by the West.
American military and intelligence agencies are working closely with Ethiopians to combat terrorist threats beyond the region, particularly in Somalia. Few, if any, countries in Africa receive as much Western aid.
Ethiopia's economy expanded at a remarkable pace.
Its infrastructure has drastically improved - there is a new commuter train in the capital Addis Ababa.
The streets are generally quiet, safe and clean.
Even though Ethiopia has been far from a model of democracy - human rights organizations have consistently led government repression - opposition in the country has been curtailed, with dissidents effectively silenced.
Many were exiled or imprisoned, killed or driven into the vastness of the desert.
But that could change.
"If you oppress people and they have no choice but to protest, it breaks out," said Seyoum Teshome, a lecturer in central Ethiopia.
The entire youth protests.
A generation protests.
There are numerous complaints covering everything from land use to the stranglehold on power of the ruling coalition.
After a widely criticized election last year, the ruling party and its allies won the last opposition seat and now control 100 percent of parliament.
At the same time, tensions are rising along the border with Eritrea; a battle over this jagged, controversial line claimed hundreds of lives in June.
Analysts fear that separatists such as the Oromo Liberation Front or the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which have been more or less defeated in recent years, could take advantage of the turbulence and rearm themselves.
Several factors explain why feelings of bitterness are now exploding after years of simmering beneath the surface.
The first seems harmless: smartphones.
Only in recent years have many Ethiopians been able to communicate via social media, as cheaper smartphones have become more common and internet services have improved.
Even if the government blocks access to Facebook and Twitter, which it does at regular intervals, especially during protests, many people can still communicate through internet proxies that hide where they are.
Several young Ethiopians said they gathered for protests.
The second factor is that there is more solidarity between the Oromos and Amharas, the two largest ethnic groups in Ethiopia.
The Oromos and Amharas are not natural enemies.
For eons, the Amharas, who come from Ethiopia's predominantly Christian highlands, prospered in politics and economics while exploiting the Oromos, many of whom are Muslims and live in lowland areas.
But that, too, is changing.
"We are in the process of coordinating under one umbrella," said Mulatu Gemechu, a leader of the Oromos.
The largest protests took place in Amhara and Oromo areas.
Many Amharas and Oromos feel that Ethiopia is unfairly dominated by members of the Tigray ethnic group, who make up around 6 percent of the population and who are dominant in the military, intelligence services, trade and politics.
The third reason for the riots is the death of Meles Zenawi.
Mr. Meles, a former rebel leader, served as Ethiopia's prime minister for 17 years until his death from an undisclosed illness in 2012.
He was seen as a tactical genius, a man who could think outside the box.
Analysts say he was particularly adept at spotting early signs of discontent and using special envoys to process adversaries and render them harmless.
"The current regime lacks this fundamental skill," said Mr. Abdi, a conflict analyst.
Ethiopia's new Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, was chosen to take the place of Mr Meles for relatively obscure reasons.
Unlike Mr. Meles, who came from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Mr. Hailemariam comes from the south.
Analysts say he does not enjoy the trust of Tigray-controlled security services.
Many fear that the result will be more bloodshed.
The last time Ethiopia experienced such an uproar was in 2005, after thousands protested against elections that analysts say were apparently botched by the government and subsequently stolen.
During the subsequent raids, many protesters were killed, even if there were fewer than in recent months, and this period of unrest passed relatively quickly.
Development experts praised Ethiopia's leaders for their visionary infrastructure planning, such as the new commuter train, as well as their measurable progress in poverty reduction.
But apparently this has not prevented the intensification of the Ethiopian government's internal resentment.
And it is taking on a dangerous ethnic form.
Last month, protesters in Gondar, an Amharic city, attacked Tigray-run businesses, and hatred of the Tigray is becoming increasingly common on social media.
Analysts say the protests put the U.S. and other Western allies in a strange position.
The American government used Ethiopia as a base for drone flights over neighboring Somalia, although it recently announced that it had closed that base.
While the West clearly wants to support democracy, it does not want its ally to collapse in an already volatile area.
"This," said Mr. Abdi, "is a very thin balancing act."
Donald Trump explains his claim that Obama founded ISIS was "sarcasm"
Donald J. Trump on Friday sought to dispel the latest controversy surrounding his campaign by stating that his repeated claim that President Obama and Hillary Clinton were the "founders" of the Islamic State terrorist group was not serious.
This clarification raised new questions about the Republican presidential candidate's ability to communicate clearly and comprehensibly with the American public.
It also puts his comrades-in-arms, who try to defend him during an eventful phase, in the peculiar position of having to explain statements that he could not have meant.
After making the suggestion at a campaign event Wednesday night, Mr. Trump backtracked on Thursday's claim, insisting in interviews that he really did not intend to suggest that the president and Mrs. Clinton had created ISIS.
But in an early morning tweet on Friday, Mr. Trump said he was simply being sarcastic.
The tweet was in contrast to the previous day, when Mr. Trump said in a series of interviews that he was completely serious about the allegation.
When conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt tried to help Mr. Trump tone down the statement by reminding him that Mr. Obama wants to destroy ISIS, the Republican presidential candidate didn't want to know.
The latest storm of criticism is raining down on Mr. Trump as he has tried to shift the focus of his campaign to the state of the economy due to falling poll numbers.
Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton gave speeches on the economic situation in Michigan this week.
On Friday, Mr. Trump tried to return to this issue.
Tweeting, he warned that Mrs. Clinton's proposals would lead to higher taxes and that he found her speech boring.
Mr. Trump has already brought up sarcasm in his defense.
In late July, he drew strong criticism when he said the Russians should hack Mrs. Clinton's emails, but later declared, "Of course I meant it sarcastically."
This method allows Mr. Trump to shift the linguistic boundaries in politics and then row back as needed.
"I think one of his methods is to test how certain messages are received by his fans, how they are received, and then, if necessary, 'clarify' depending on what the reaction is," said Ruth Sherman, a communications expert who observes the language of both candidates.
But I also think he's clever enough to keep his statements vague enough so that they can be interpreted in different ways.
Instead of softening the tone for the presidential election, Mr. Trump has adopted an even more caustic tone as his poll ratings have continued to decline.
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Friday showed a big lead in the states of North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and a neck-and-neck race in Florida.
While Mr. Trump generally tries not to apologize for his provocative statements, he often accuses his critics of distorting his statements or misunderstanding his humor.
But while he has been increasingly the focus of attention in the final months of his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump's jokes have put his loyal allies in the uncomfortable position of having to stand by him, no matter how provocative his statements may be.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York and one of Trump's most prominent advocates, went to great lengths to defend the nominee today in a CNN interview on Thursday.
"I think what he's saying are legitimate, political comments," Mr. Giuliani said when asked about the accuracy of Mr. Trump's statements about whether Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton founded the Islamic State.
It is true in this sense that before Obama ISIS was an almost unknown, small organization, he called them backbenchers, completely wrong and therefore it happened because he withdrew the troops from Iraq.
Most mainstream Republicans try to argue that the Obama administration, in which Mrs. Clinton served as Secretary of State, allowed ISIS to spread by failing to aggressively control the situation in the Middle East.
Ahead of Friday's campaign rallies in Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump continued his attacks on the media, accusing them of riding on his every word and being biased against him.
He taunted the "poor, pathetic" TV pundits who try to understand him and said, "You can't do it!"
Some of the Democrats scoffed at Mr. Trump's apology as just further proof that he was unfit for president.
Once ousted from the market by price, café returns in Greenpoint
Verb Cafe was a shabby café in Williamsburg where you could only pay cash, which didn't have Wi-Fi but served good coffee for 15 years.
Of course, prices pushed him out of his Bedford Avenue storefront.
The store Soap Cherie, which replaced Verb in the summer of 2014, sells soap in the form of cupcakes.
Locals mourned it as the last loss in a gentrifying city.
Artist Molly Crabapple wrote on Twitter, "I know New York is change, but I still can't believe CBGB is dead, the Chelsea Hotel excepted, and Verb is now a soap business."
But if New York is change, it's also reinvention.
A revived Verb Cafe opened last November in Greenpoint, less than a mile north of its original location.
The new verb has Wi-Fi and accepts credit cards, but still has some of the same staff and a similarly plain vibe.
The coffee is still good.
The new owner of the verb is Cisco Rodriguez, a longtime employee of the old café who is the owner and manager of the new café.
He started working at Verb in 2001 and stayed there until the end.
When a client offered him funding for a new field office, he was excited to do it, he said.
Rodriguez, 36, retained a lot.
Verb uses the same distributor for the bagels bought the same espresso machine model.
It even uses the same lamps from the old verb.
But Rodriguez said he also wanted to experiment.
He introduced new ingredients.
The menu includes sandwiches with bacon and cheese, and there are toppings like capers and sautéed onions.
There are natural tear bowls.
The café no longer serves beer, but there are fresh juices.
After nine months, Rodriguez said he noticed a steady stream of old repeat customers.
"Many old customers were also displaced by prices from Williamsburg," he said.
Recently on a Sunday, Rebecca Oliveira was one such customer.
Oliveira, 34, used to live in Williamsburg and attended the verb regularly.
Even after moving to Greenpoint, she would take the trail.
After the verb closed, she gave up drinking coffee for a while, she said.
"I realized it was the coffee and the culture in the verb that I liked," she said.
Now she's drinking coffee again, even though she ordered blended chai tea that day instead of her usual iced coffee, which is another new addition.
Tom Rosenthal has been another long-standing and loyal customer since the verb began in 2003.
He went there before work and inevitably always ordered the same.
"I came a quarter past seven, every day, like a Swiss pocket watch, and they prepare my everything bagel with butter," he said.
Photo Rodriguez said he wanted to experiment and add new ingredients to the menu.
These days, Rosenthal still gets his usual order, but sometimes he alternates his everything bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese.
Rodriguez said he held no grudge that the soap business had taken over the old business space.
In fact, the owners of the soap offered Cherie to make a special soap for verb with the café's cold-brewed coffee as an ingredient.
"I think we'll respond to their offer," Rodriguez said.
And the traditional Polish inhabitants of Greenpoint have also accepted the café.
A new customer translated the menu into Polish and Rodriguez said he plans to display it soon so his new neighbors feel welcome.
The location also has other advantages.
A local juice shop wants to bottle and sell the cold-brewed coffee.
There is a chance that the café will expand to a neighboring building.
For many customers, a new verb is enough to get their old favorites.
Joseph Witt was a regular customer and said he was devastated when the café closed.
When the new café opened, Whitt said that entering the place and ordering a new coffee felt like coming home.
"I had to smell it," he said.
The depressing food of the economic crisis in "a plentiful meal"
In March 1933, shortly after his rise to the presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had his lunch in the Oval Office.
As a foodie, President Roosevelt had a soft spot for refined Fifth Avenue delicacies such as pâte de foie gras and Maryland turtle soup.
His menu that day was a bit more modest: stuffed eggs in tomato sauce, mashed potatoes and, for dessert, a plum pudding.
"It was an act of culinary solidarity with suffering people," said Jane Ziegelman.
Her husband Andrew Coe added, "It was also a message to Americans about how to eat."
The couple lives in Brooklyn Heights and are both food historians.
Coe's last book, "Chop Suey," was about Chinese cuisine in the U.S., while Ziegelman's book "97 Orchard" tells about life in a Lower East Side apartment building from a food perspective.
Their latest collaboration, "A Decent Meal," which will be published Tuesday by Harper Verlag, illustrates the history of American cuisine during the Great Depression.
They showed culinary solidarity when they met with a reporter for dinner at Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, a small, no-frills snack bar in the Flatiron District that has been in business since the 1929 stock market crash.
Ziegelman, 54, ordered a cream cheese sandwich with olive chips, while Coe, 57, ate turkey with mashed potatoes and vegetable mix.
When the reporter ordered meatloaf, the couple found it fitting for a discussion of food in the Great Depression era.
"Rich foods were very popular," Ziegelman said.
There was peanut bread, meatloaf and bean bread.
They were prepared from an ingredient and something cheap that stretches the ingredient.
Imagine eating so many peanuts that they serve them as dinner.
Coe grinned.
"It must have settled in the stomach like lead," he said.
In the years leading up to the Great Depression, the table in an American household, especially in rural areas, was an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Teams of women cooked for male field workers and freshly baked pate was served for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It was the Americans who sent food to starving Europeans during World War I. "A Square Meal" chronicles the ways in which the country dealt with the fact that it was no longer the land of milk and honey.
"It was a time when food became a central, tense topic for Americans," Coe said, explaining why he and his wife wanted to write about it.
Equally tense was the new budget diet: mysterious foods like breads and casseroles became staples, the casserole as a "wonderful way to recycle leftovers," Ziegelman noted, as chefs could hide unappetizing ingredients under a creamy sauce.
Fresh fruit was replaced by cheaper dried fruit.
Meat, which for years was the focal point of American cuisine, became a rarely served luxury.
Peculiar mixtures were tried because high-calorie and nutritious satisfaction took precedence over taste or even common kitchen sense.
During her research for the book, which also includes recipes, Ziegelman prepared a dish from this era, baked onions with peanut butter.
"It wasn't a popular addition at lunchtime," says Coe.
Ziegelmann continues: "It was surreal."
Peanut butter and baked onions don't go together.
It was typical of many of the housekeeping recipes.
Like never before or since, household economists—including Louise Stanley, head of the Federal Bureau of Home Economics from 1923 to 1943—drove the country's eating habits in such a way.
By publishing recitals and articles in newspapers and magazines, they encouraged women to become "household politicians" and meet the challenge of turning mushrooms like creamy spaghetti with carrots into delicious meals.
"A Square Meal" is a celebration of historical treats.
Particularly palatable are the reports of the government's response to starving citizens, such as President Herbert Hoover's let-me-cake-eat attitude.
While publicly praising his kitchen's simple Iowa farmhouse kitchen, he dined like the millionaire man of the world he has become.
"He liked continental cuisine like fish with cucumber sauce," Coe said.
He ate in an almost gilded dining room and wore a tuxedo.
He was wonderfully out of touch with reality.
President Roosevelt might have made the same mistake if his wife, Eleanor, had not asked him to make an example of his stomach.
As described in the book, Mrs. Roosevelt's hiring of a housekeeper with no interest in flavors resulted in the White House producing the most boring food in Washington, but also one of the most drearily prepared."
Many of the Great Depression-era ways of dealing with food were discarded once the country got back on its feet.
The legacy lies on our continued focus on calories and food, Ziegelman said, as well as how science has been applied to food.
While writing the book, the couple claimed to have better understood Ziegelman's mother-in-law's eating habits — for example, how she couldn't throw food away.
"She had a real fear of wasting food," Coe said.
Ziegelman recalled, "She actually made people sick."
There was the cream puff incident.
After the plates were cleared at Eisenberg's, she and Coe pulled out a dessert they had prepared at home: the plum dessert President Roosevelt ate for lunch.
"It's called Prune Whip," Ziegelman said, adding that it was a common trick to give humble recipes a fancy name.
There was no whipped cream, only prunes, some flour, sugar, water and cinnamon.
Everyone somewhat reluctantly dipped a spoon into the tough, brown glibber.
Amazingly, it didn't taste bad.
Coe got a second serve three times.
Like a can-do budgeter, he said to his wife, "A few chopped walnuts would help."
Killed in bomb attack: He was the hero of Aleppo
He risked his own life to help others: Khaled Omar.
He was the hero of Aleppo: Khaled Omar dedicated his life to the people of Syria.
He risked everything to save the lives of others.
Now the 30-year-old himself has died in a barrel bomb attack by the Assad regime.
Omar was a member of the "White Helmets", a civil protection group that, according to the Bild newspaper, has so far saved the lives of almost 60,000 people.
2900 volunteers risk their own lives to pull people out of bombed houses and to provide first aid in the war zone.
They are the heroes of the war in Syria.
Omar was the face of the group: A video of the civil protector, which shows him in an 11-hour rescue of an infant from the rubble of a house, went around the world in 2014.
It made the Syrian a shining symbol in the horror of war.
However, he never saw himself as a hero, and according to Bild, he said: "For me, this is real jihad."
"When I die trying to save lives, I think God sees me as a martyr."
Shortly before Omar himself fell victim to an attack, he had spoken in a video about the last bombing attacks in Syria.
The helicopters dropped four barrel bombs over the Alzadia district, one of which was filled with chlorine gas.
One woman and two children died, seven people suffer from shortness of breath.
"We are now removing the poisonous remains of the bomb so that children do not play with it," Bild quotes his last words before he died.
The Assad regime's deadly bomb was supposed to hit terrorists.
Greenland shark: The oldest vertebrate is almost 400 years old
Rare sight.
Greenland sharks usually only come to the surface in winter.
This shark was allowed to return to the sea after an investigation on board the research vessel Sanna.
He was born in 1624 and swims through the North Atlantic at a good 1 km/h - until today.
Greenland sharks do not have offspring until they are 150 years old.
The Greenland shark swims leisurely along the bottom of the North Atlantic, in an hour it reaches an average of just 1,220 meters.
Only when it matters, the five-meter-long animal accelerates to a whopping 2.6 km / h - and is at this top speed half as fast as a seal.
However, this slow-paced lifestyle seems to be a panacea for old age.
Julius Nielsen from the University of Copenhagen and his colleagues report in the journal "Science" of a Greenland shark that could be 392 years old.
"Madness," says Alexander Scheuerlein from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, commenting on this lifespan, which is a world record for vertebrates.
The evolutionary biologist has long suspected that Greenland sharks become stone-old.
Only the evidence was missing.
Greenland sharks are difficult to observe, after all, they live mainly in the Arctic Ocean off the sparsely populated coasts of Canada, Greenland, Norway and Spitsbergen.
Because they prefer water temperatures around six degrees Celsius, they usually only appear on the surface in winter.
Accordingly, researchers know little about the lifestyle of Greenland sharks.
They measured their slow-motion speed when they equipped six animals with a transmitter off Spitsbergen.
In the stomach of one animal, researchers found the remains of a seal, another had swallowed the jawbone of a young polar bear.
They may hunt sleeping animals or patrol the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and search for carcasses that stagger down from higher water layers.
Julius Nielsen and his colleagues have now examined 28 Greenland sharks that fishermen picked up as bycatch from the depths of the North Atlantic off Greenland or Spitsbergen between 2010 and 2013.
The smallest shark was just 81 centimeters long, while the largest measured 502 centimeters.
To determine the age of the animals, they used the carbon-14 method to analyze the lens core of the sharks.
This center of the eye lens is formed before the birth of the sharks, the proteins contained in it are not renewed later.
The two smallest sharks had a noticeable amount of carbon-14 in the lens core.
Their birth should therefore have been after the early 1960s, when nuclear weapons tests ejected large amounts of this radioactive carbon into the atmosphere.
In the third smallest animal with a length of 220 centimeters, the lens core, on the other hand, contained a small excess of carbon-14 from the nuclear weapons tests, so it probably celebrated its 50th birthday when it was examined in 2012.
All larger Greenland sharks, on the other hand, had normal amounts of carbon-14 in their lens core, which is produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere.
In fact, the carbon 14 clock showed an age of 335 years for a 493-centimeter-long Greenland shark, while the record shark with 502 centimeters is even 392 years old.
It was known that Greenland shark females only have offspring when they are longer than four meters.
Now the researchers were able to assign an age to the length.
Since one of the animals with 392 centimeters was probably on the threshold of sexual maturity and its age was determined with 156 years, Greenland sharks obviously take at least one and a half centuries to reproduce.
This is also likely to be a world record for vertebrates at the moment.
It is no coincidence that such Methuselahs live mainly in icy waters.
The previous record holder, a 211-year-old bowhead whale with a 120-year-old harpoon tip stuck to its neck, was also caught off Alaska.
Due to the low temperatures, the organism of the animals living there often runs on a low flame.
So they mature later - and age more slowly.
In order to keep warm in cold water, the animals often become particularly large.
Because the volume grows much faster than its surface, through which the animal loses heat.
The heat loss of one gram of mouse is therefore much greater than that of one gram of elephant.
Another advantage: you have fewer enemies.
"A smaller animal therefore lives more dangerously and should concentrate on having as many offspring as possible as early as possible," explains evolutionary biologist Scheuerlein.
A very large animal, on the other hand, should rather invest its resources in a long life.
Building ground in a double pack
In its most recent meeting, the municipal council focused on topics relating to construction.
With relief, the committee accepted the announcement by Mayor Robert Putz that "finally the marketing of the recently designated residential areas can begin".
After the land, parcelling and development issues have been clarified and the applications for surveying have been submitted, nothing stands in the way of selling the plots in the residential areas "Straßlweg" and "Schönau-West" (Binderstraße area - expansion phase 1) to interested parties.
The local council is convinced that the building areas in the rural and quiet residential community of Schönau appeal to young families and sprightly seniors alike.
As it was said, prospective builders can now report to the town hall, the municipal council is expected to discuss the allocation of the plots in its September meeting.
In order to be able to meet requests for the settlement of further commercial enterprises, combined with the creation of jobs, the municipal council decided to amend the land use plan, which was only newly drawn up in the spring of this year, in some areas.
In the Unterzeitlarn area, for example, the industrial area already designated there will be extended by two parcels in the direction of state road 2112.
Frankfurt benefits from Brexit
In competition with Paris, Dublin and Luxembourg, the city on the Main has the best chance of attracting jobs and companies relocated from London.
"It is very likely that Frankfurt will benefit the most from the Brexit vote," says Michael Voigtländer, head of the IW's Financial Markets and Real Estate Markets Competence Field.
After the Brexit referendum, it is uncertain whether financial institutions will be allowed to continue to conduct financial transactions throughout the EU from London.
For the so-called EU passport, the approval in Great Britain is sufficient for them.
Large US banks are currently taking advantage of this.
Several banks have already announced plans to relocate jobs.
The lobby association "Frankfurt Main Finance" expects 10,000 new jobs on the Main within five years.
According to the IW, the seat of the European Central Bank (ECB), which combines responsibility for monetary policy and supervision of the largest banks in the euro zone, as well as other important authorities such as the European Insurance Supervisory Authority EIOPA and the Risk Council ESRB, speak for Frankfurt.
Although the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has its headquarters in Paris, it is less important for the financial sector than the ECB.
"The proximity to the central bank is important for banks, as it allows them to communicate directly with supervisors," says IW Professor Voigtländer.
Although Luxembourg is home to a large fund industry, it performs worse in terms of infrastructure, just like Dublin.
Frankfurt is much easier to reach thanks to the large airport.
Furthermore, the city scores with easily available commercial real estate.
"It's not so easy to find free, high-quality offices in Paris," says Voigtländer.
In addition, rents for first-class commercial properties on the Seine are 50 percent higher than on the Main.
In addition, Frankfurt offers a higher quality of life than the competition thanks to good medical care and infrastructure as well as less crime.
In a ranking by the management consultancy Mercer, the city is in seventh place, Luxembourg in 19th place, Dublin in 33rd place and Paris in 37th place.
Even if quality of life is a question of preferences: "With its already strong position as a financial centre for the European single market, Frankfurt could attract further banks and investors," concludes the IW.
However, despite the Brexit vote, London will remain the most important financial centre in Europe, say the economic researchers.
This is also supported by the balance of power: According to figures from Landesbank Helaba, around 144,000 people worked in the banking sector in London at the end of 2015, and 62500 in Frankfurt.
Gilead Receives Legal Costs from Hepatitis C Patent Litigation with Merck
A U.S. District Judge ruled that Gilead Sciences Inc is entitled to reimbursement of legal fees it incurred as a result of the hepatitis C lawsuit with pharmaceutical company Merck & Co Inc.
In June, Gilead was exempted from $200 million in damages for infringing two Merck patents related to Gilead's blockbuster drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni after a U.S. judge uncovered a pattern of misconduct on Merck's part, including perjury and other unethical acts.
When filing the lawsuit on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman said Gilead is entitled to waiver of the costs incurred during the defense of the case.
Merck is trying to catch up with Gilead, which dominates the market for a new generation of hepatitis C drugs that can cure over 90 percent of patients with liver disease.
The case dates back to 2013, when Gilead and Merck sued each other and claimed ownership of laboratory work based on sofosbuvir, the active ingredient in Gilead's drugs.
U.S.-backed forces say they have regained full control of Manbij from the Islamic State
U.S.-backed forces have recaptured full control of the northern town of Manbij, near the Turkish border, after the last IS fighters in the city left it, a spokesman for the group said on Friday.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are currently combing the city after the departure of the remaining group of fighters buried inside the city.
They have freed over 2,000 civilians held hostage by the fighters, Sharfan Darwish of the DKS-allied Manbij military council told Reuters.
"The city is now under complete control, but we are doing clean-up," he told Reuters.
Clintons earn $10.75 million in 2015 and pay 34.2% federal taxes
Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax return on Friday, which showed the Democratic presidential candidate and her husband an income of $10.75 million and an effective federal tax rate of 34.2%.
In 2015, the Clintons donated $1 million to charity, primarily to the Clinton Foundation; former President Bill Clinton earned nearly $5.3 million in speaking fees; the former Secretary of State reported an income of USD 3 million from Simon & Schuster for her book about her tenure at the State Department.
Clinton's vice-presidential nominee, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, along with his wife, Anne Holton, released his tax returns for the past decade.
They paid an effective federal tax rate of 20.3% in 2015.
"Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine continue to set standards for financial transparency," Clinton's campaign aide Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement.
In stark contrast, Donald Trump is hiding behind false excuses and backtracking on his previous promises to publish his tax returns.
It is common for US presidential candidates to publish their tax returns, although they are not required by law to do so.
Trump, a New York businessman, and his lawyers have cited a tax audit by the tax authorities as the reason for his refusal.
"The ball is in your court," Clinton's campaign aide Ian Sams wrote on Twitter, referring to the publication of the Democratic presidential candidate.
On Thursday, Michael Cohen, Trump's special adviser, told CNN that he would not allow Trump to release anything until the tax audits are complete.
Trump's critics, including 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have already said that his refusal raises questions about wealth, charitable donations, business practices and various other ties, particularly with Russia.
Clinton has already jumped into the issue and published a video on the Internet on Friday in which high-ranking Republicans call on Trump to release his tax returns.
On Thursday, she also raised the issue during a speech on Michigan's economy.
"He refuses to do what every other presidential candidate has done in recent decades and release his tax returns," she told the crowd.
Politico has reported that Trump paid no or very little tax for two years during the 1990s, and a New York Times business journalist on Friday quoted a number of tax attorneys and accountants as saying that could still be the case.
Federal taxes have become an issue in the election campaign.
Clinton supports a scheme named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett that would ensure that people earning more than $1 million pay a tax rate of at least 30%.
President Obama also supports the proposal.
During a campaign event for Hillary Clinton last week in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway industrial conglomerate is based here, called on Trump to meet to exchange their tax returns.
Buffett said he had also been subjected to an IRS tax audit and Trump was "afraid" of voters, not tax authorities.
Clinton's campaign released tax returns going back to 2007.
The Clintons, who now live in Chappaqua, New York, paid an average effective federal tax rate of about 32% between 2007 and 2014 and an effective combined tax rate of about 40.5%.
The Clintons' 2015 tax return showed that they received only $100 of their income as wages, unlike the majority of Americans.
Their main investment was a low-cost index fund, from which the Clintons taxed dividends and income of $109,000.
With contributions by Kevin Drawbaugh; edited by Jonathan Otis
Condoms with chilli powder, fireworks promote Tanzania's elephant protection
Conservationists in Tanzania use an unorthodox way to discourage elephants from going to human-inhabited settlements — they throw condoms filled with chili powder at them.
The method has proven effective and the Honeyguide Foundation, which came up with the idea years ago, has intensified its promotion together with the U.S. conservation community by training volunteers in villages in northern Tanzania to use a non-violent four-step method to protect their homes and crops without harming animals.
Previously, many used spears to defend themselves.
Friday is World Elephant Day, dedicated to animal welfare.
"Since we ... Toolkit, we have seen a change in attitudes within these communities, where they are much more confident that they can keep the elephants from their fields without harming the elephants," said Damian Bell, Managing Director of Honeyguide, in a statement.
The first two steps involve lighting the elephant with a torch and blowing it into a horn.
If he is not deterred, a so-called "chilli cloud" is thrown.
Chili powder mixed with soil is packed together with a firecracker in a condom, the end of which is turned down to the fuse.
When lit, the condom bursts open with a bang and sprays fine dust on chilli powder into the air.
A whiff is usually already enough to chase away the elephant.
One last possibility is a launcher that shoots a golden rain firework into the air, causing a loud, bright explosion.
City Council unanimously decides: No new kiosk building on the banks of the Rhine in St. Goar
Normally, the people of St. Goar accept investment projects from traders with a kissing hand - after all, the retail trade in the core city is considered to be significantly expandable.
However, the application for the construction of a new sales kiosk on the banks of the Rhine in the immediate vicinity of the Rhine balcony under construction has now been unanimously rejected by the city council.
"Basically, we welcome new traders, but at this location in an exposed location on the banks of the Rhine, this kiosk does not fit," said Michael Hubrath for the CDU parliamentary group.
Jewish director smashes Berlin hotel because Israeli area code removed after 'Arab' request - RT News
A French director with Jewish roots unleashed a media uproar after revealing that the Kempinski Bristol Hotel in Berlin did not list an Israeli area code because, according to an employee, Arab guests "requested" it.
Claude Lanzmann, author of the Holocaust documentary "Shoah," vented his anger at the Kempinski Bristol Hotel in Berlin by writing an open letter to the German newspaper FAZ.
During his last stay, Lanzmann tried to find Israel on the hotel's country code list.
However, the country was not listed between the countries that can be called directly from the hotel room.
How is it possible in 2016 in Berlin, the capital of the new Germany, that Israel was eliminated and erased?
Lanzmann wrote.
Instead, Kempinksi Bristol offers a way to dial Israel via its own call center.
Looking for an explanation, the director turned to the hotel reception.
The answer he received there "shocked him," as Lanzmann wrote.
The hotel employee said that the measure was a "deliberate decision by the management of Kempinski Hotels."
The reason behind it triggered even more anger in the director.
"The majority of our guests are Arabs and they demanded that the area code be deleted," the Lanzmann employee was quoted as saying.
Israeli Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman called this a "great disgrace," reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
We were horrified and dismayed by this event.
This is really very shameful.
The fact that this happened in Germany in this very hotel chain is an even greater shame.
This needs no explanation.
We expect the hotel to "draw the right conclusions," the official said.
The incident caused quite a huge response on the Internet, where people called the whole thing a scandal.
Some insinuated that the Kempinski Hotel had "yielded" to the alleged requests of Arab guests.
"Shame on you," read another post, pointing out that the hotel, which is located on the posh Kurfürstendamm, is located near a synagogue.
The hotel quickly denied all accusations and called the incident an "oversight" and "apologized" to Lanzmann, reports Der Spiegel.
"There was never a direct order" not to include Israel in the speed dial list," the Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted a spokesman for the Kempinski Hotel as saying.
It adds that the country code has now been added.
Police use tear gas & rubber bullets against protesting Brazilian students
Students clashed with police in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on Thursday as they gathered to demonstrate against the government's reforms to the public education system.
The police used tear gas and rubber bullets against the demonstrators.
The trouble began when police officers tried to disperse the students, which led to police using rubber bullets and tear gas.
Several hundred students took part in the demonstrations to express their dismay at the plans.
According to proposals by Sao Paulo State Governor Geraldo Alckmin, slightly less than 100 public schools will be closed while 300,000 students will be relocated to save money.
Some of the protesters were seen spraying graffiti against interim president Michel Temer on walls.
The latest protests came a few days after protesters took to the streets en masse in support of suspended President Dilma Rousseff, who had been removed from office by a Senate vote to remove her from office.
Trade between Russia & Iran suddenly rises to 71% - RT Business
With the lifting of sanctions, trade turnover between Moscow and Tehran grew by 70.9 percent year-on-year, according to Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan.
Since the international sanctions against Iran were lifted, interest on the part of Russian companies in doing business in the country has grown sharply, the ambassador said.
Russian companies are establishing existing links with Iran, while new companies are willing to gain access to the market.
Of course, further trade expansion is one of the biggest priorities of bilateral cooperation with Iran," Dzhagaryan said.
He noted that trade turnover between Russia and Iran increased by 70.9 percent in the first five months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015 and amounted to $856 million.
Notably, Russian imports into Iran jumped 91.5 percent to $697 million.
Russian imports from Iran increased 16 percent to $158 million.
The trade boom was achieved through deliveries of machinery, land vehicles and weapons," the ambassador said.
Dzhagaryan expects a record number of Iranian tourists in Russia this year.
Last year, Russia's mission abroad issued around 35,000 visas, primarily travel visas, to Iranian citizens.
Furthermore, Iran reached the top 20 countries in terms of the number of tourists in Russia.
You could say that the record numbers of Iranian tourists in Russia from last year will be broken," he said.
At the same time, relatively few Russians visit Iran, something the ambassador hopes will change.
"I can personally recommend visiting the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Yazd, which have preserved monuments of ancient Persian civilization in good condition," he said.
Witnesses wanted: beverage market in Waldbröl attacked
A robbery was committed on Thursday evening at the beverage market of Rewe XXL on Waldbröler Gerberstraße.
Under the pretext of a firearm, three darkly dressed people, who had masked their faces, demanded from the employee of the beverage market the surrender of cash and then fled first on foot and then presumably with a silver-colored VW Golf.
How much money was looted, the police do not share.
The perpetrators are said to have been between 1.60 and 1.70 meters tall, so relatively small.
The beverage market is directly accessible from the parking deck of the Rewe market and is difficult to see.
The perpetrators must have run after the attack in the direction of Gerberstraße, Friedrich-Engelbert-Weg and fled from the gravel parking lot opposite the parking garage entrance with the silver-colored car, possibly in the direction of B 256 (Schladernring).
Anyone who has made observations at the time of the crime (around 7:45 p.m.) that are related to the robbery should urgently report to the police.
Nagold: fun and games during summer leisure
The children and young people of the socio-educational day group/social group work of the Kinderschutzbund Nagold spent eight beautiful and happy days with their supervisors on their summer camp in Nussdorf, near Mühlacker.
During the first week of the school holidays, the cheerful group was accommodated in the quietly located Hardtwäldle leisure centre.
Several full-day excursions were on the program.
On the one hand we went to Bretten with a visit to the petting zoo.
On the other hand to Maulbronn, where there was a special children's tour in the world-famous monastery.
The third excursion led to Pforzheim.
In the Celtic Museum in Hochdorf, the group learned a lot about the everyday life and food of the Celts.
On the hot days, the group enjoyed themselves at the Tiefensee in Maulbronn, which invited to jump, swim and splash.
Culinary children and carers were spoiled with their self-prepared favorite dishes such as the Sauren Spätzle, the Seebronner Pfännle, Iselshauser-Bloff, the English Breakfast and Tübinger Bolognese.
In workshops, beautiful pieces of jewellery were created from pearls and stones or a Roman mill game was made from wood.
Other highlights of the free time were fishing in a nearby pond, the evenings by the fire and the final "Colorful Evening".
On the day of the journey home, the sun was shining and the children and young people returned home satisfied.
Haigerloch: Pilgrimage to the Gate of Mercy
The altar servers from the pastoral care unit Eyachtal-Haigerloch St. Anna were on a four-day pilgrimage from Villingen to Freiburg.
Four stages were mastered together.
In order to bridge the time until the next Rome pilgrimage of all altar servers in probably two years, the Oberministrantenrunde St. Anna has decided to prepare and carry out a pilgrimage lasting several days.
Various pilgrimage destinations were examined and it was finally decided on the episcopal city of Freiburg, where this year, on the occasion of the Holy Year of Mercy, a special pilgrimage destination was offered with the Gate of Mercy opened for this purpose at the Freiburg Cathedral.
16 Minis from Bittelbronn, Gruol, Haigerloch and Heiligenzimmern set off.
The evening before, Father Storost sent the pilgrims out in a small celebration in St. Anna, blessed the pilgrim crosses and gave the pilgrim blessing.
From Horb we took the train to the starting point Villingen, where there is also a Minster of Our Lady and so the pilgrimage route from the cathedral was started.
The individual day tours were framed in the morning and evening by a short impulse with various prayers, songs and scriptural texts.
But also on the way the Minis stopped at field crosses, chapels or churches again and again to sing together a song from a specially compiled pilgrim song book.
For the overnight stays, parish halls of the local parishes were available.
At the stage finishes, Alexandra Burkhardt and Heidi Faller provided a tasty and invigorating dinner and breakfast.
On the second day we continued via Furtwangen to Gütenbach.
The next day we started the stage to St. Peter, which was the most strenuous route, but first about 500 meters of altitude had to be descended in the humid heat and then climbed again.
The well-deserved reward was a barbecue together at the Badweiher in the evening.
After the morning impulse on the fourth day of the pilgrimage in the imposing monastery church of St. Peter, we went on the final stage to Freiburg.
Visibly relieved and happy, the Minis arrived at Freiburg Cathedral in the late afternoon and passed through the Gate of Mercy.
With a small impulse God was thanked here.
In the evening mass in the cathedral, the Minis arrived at the pilgrimage destination were welcomed by co-operator Markus Obert.
After the service, the pilgrims were able to visit the sacristy and the high altar.
The next day there was still time for the Breisgau metropolis.
In the afternoon we went by train back to Horb.
In the end, all participants agreed that the days were characterized by spirituality and a strong community experience.
Scotsman Callum Skinner storms home as Briton wins gold for cycling
Scotland's Callum Skinner raced to glory in the men's team sprint at the Rio Velodrome last night as the British team defended the London 2012 title.
The 23-year-old from Glasgow took on the anchor role that his compatriot Sir Chris Hoy had made his own. The youngster made the legend proud as he stormed home to claim a win from favourites New Zealand.
England claimed a shocking victory four years ago, while Hoy took the fifth of six Olympic gold medals.
They repeated the trick after taking only a modest sixth place at the World Track Championships in London in March, despite Hoy's retirement.
The problem between Beijing and London was the replacement of the driver Jamie Staff.
They did so in time when Hindes showed up.
Hoy's retirement created a void that Kian Emadi and Matt Crampton tried to fill.
Skinner was the man they stayed with when they saw potential in the Scotsman that has now unfolded.
Hindes, Kenny – who won with Hoy four years ago – and Skinner set an Olympic record in the qualifying rounds, but in the standard rounds, the New Zealanders won in the first round.
And the British trio won the duel with gold.
Hindes was just behind after his lap, but Kenny brought the team forward and Skinner held it.
A change in strategy was a big part of the transformation, with Hindes driving in a higher gear to slow it down and allow Kenny and especially Skinner to keep up the pace.
Hoy watched from his position as a BBC pundit and caught Skinner, Kenny and Hindes as they stepped onto the podium.
The 23-year-old Skinner from Glasgow said: "It's a flattering comparison."
I'm just here to do my best and make a name for myself.
We set an Olympic record in the finals and defeated the world champions.
It was just amazing.
There is no better way to win this.
After the 2012 triumph alongside Kenny and Hoy, Hindes admitted that he deliberately fell onto the track after a weak start.
He later retracted this statement and there was no objection from England's rivals.
With such an outstanding victory, there was no such problem this time.
Hindes said: "It feels like London with all the GB flags in the stands."
We have come together as a team for the last three months.
We came off so badly with so many world titles that it was incredible to win again at the Olympics.
This is an event, a gold medal for the nation, won seven out of 10 titles in both Beijing and London.
If this is a barometer of our progress over the last five months, then we can expect a successful five days in the Velodrome.
With Kenny's form, it is possible for him to repeat Hoy's victory of three Olympic gold medals in one competition.
That would mean six gold medals and one silver medal for Kenny – who is exactly 12 years younger than Hoy, who was also born on March 23 (an apparently sacred date for British sport; Steve Redgrave, Mo Farah and Roger Bannister were also born on that day).
That would be like Hoy's.
Kenny will next take part in the sprint, which starts today and will go over three days.
The 28-year-old from Bolton said: "I'm just enjoying this for the moment."
The team event is always best.
You can win it with your colleagues.
It feels a bit lonely to win alone.
Hindes said, "If he wins two more gold medals, he should be knighted."
It was the only medal competition of the day, but there was more good news for England.
Sir Bradly Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull qualified with the fastest performance in the four-kilometre four-kilometre race.
They reached the finish line in 3:51.942.
The world record, which won gold in London in 2012, was 3:51.659.
The first and final round (22.42) will take place today on the second day of the competition, where Wiggins will certainly be the focus.
He had argued yesterday with officials before the qualification, when officials called him to measure his height.
In the corresponding women's competition, which will continue and end tomorrow, Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald of Milngavie advanced in world record time in 4:13.260.
The GB Team relies on its strong track cycling team to dominate the middle period of the Olympics and win a bevy of medals.
After a truly extraordinary display of absolute dominance in Beijing and London, expectations for Rio were lowered.
Dramas played out in the background, such as the resignation of technical director Shane Sutton in April amid allegations of sexism and bullying, as well as the retirement of the likes of Hoy and Victoria Pendleton.
However, if you look at the first night of the competition at the Velodrome, it looks as if the now legendary reputation of GB, which peaked at the perfect moment, could be repeated again.
Future of Portland smelter questionable due to cancellation of energy contract
The future of Portland's aluminum smelter in Victoria — as well as hundreds of workers' jobs — is at stake as the plant operator terminates the power supply contract, canceling all supply contracts, the supplying energy company said.
The move followed the Victorian government's decision earlier this year not to provide any further subsidies to operate the plant.
A 20-year subsidy expires in November.
Up to 2,000 jobs at Alcoa's Portland facility are at stake.
No fewer than 2000 jobs - direct and indirect - could be at risk if they were to be closed.
In addition, there could be domino effects as the smelter consumes around 10 percent of Victoria's total electricity generation.
In 2014, Alcoa closed the Point Henry smelter, which led to the closure of the Anglesea power plant last year.
Alcoa's Portland smelter is losing money and risking closure.
This move follows years of speculation about the future of the plant, initially as a result of the strong Australian dollar and most recently due to the electricity price for the plant.
AGL, which supplies the large aluminium smelter with its Loy Yang A power plant in Latrobe Valley, said it expects three more owners to terminate their contracts.
The plant is majority-owned by a joint venture between Alcoa and Alumina, of which the Chinese company CITIC and Japan's Marubeni Corp hold smaller shares.
"AGL anticipates that the Portland plant will continue to operate, implying additional physical demand for electricity from the smelter," the company said.
AGL further stated that the contracts were so-called "hedging transactions" that should have come into force from November 2016.
The contracts have a 12-month notice period, so they will end in 2017.
"AGL therefore expects the contracts to contribute to revenues in fiscal year 17," the electricity supplier said.
Any potential impact on AGL revenues from FY18 onwards is currently limited by forecasts of strong wholesale electricity price futures markets.
AGL said it had already written off the value of the contracts in its $187 million financial statements in "anticipation of termination."
Alcoa said that the decision to cancel the contracts undermined Alcoa's "ability to... to operate the smelter or to ensure the supply of electricity to the smelter'.
The U.S. company said it signed a 20-year deal with Loy Yang in 2010 that should have gone into effect from November this year, though it still owes an explanation as to why it withdrew from the contract.
Analysts warn of the possible closure of the Portland smelter in Victoria and the Tomago plant near Newcastle due to the poor economic conditions of the industry.
Referring to analysts' statements earlier this week, Head of Operations Stephen Mikkelsen said Portland uses around 600 megawatts of electricity annually and Tomago around 900 megawatts.
If both plants were to disappear from the market, this would mean a significant reduction in demand on the [electricity market].
And for us as power generators, that wouldn't be good," he said.
More than just a Kardashian reality TV star, Kendall is on the cover of Vogue's September issue
Kendall Jenner, 20, model and fourth daughter of the manager and mother of the Kardashian-Jenner clan Kris is on the cover of the coveted September issue of US Vogue.
Kendall, who is Estee Lauder's brand ambassador and walked at fashion weeks in Milan, Paris and New York, announced the news on her Instagram account on Thursday.
"In a room full of people I love, the sight of this cover made me cry," Kendall wrote.
The reveal of the cover was followed by a bizarre (or simply similar to Keeping Up with the Kardashians?), scripted reality video showing the entire Kardashian-Jenner family (with the exception of Rob and Caitlyn and in the presence of Keep-Up's most popular showbiz uncle and producer Ryan Seacrest) forgetting her sister's cover and ending with a classic twist:  they all have a surprise party planned.
This represents the clichéd plot of almost every birthday episode of a children's show (Seacrest brought the phrase, "You thought we forgot about you?" with the honesty of a cartoon rabbit on an 8 a.m. slot), but Kris had to let her other girls somehow participate in this publicity.
With the September issue of Vogue in mind, a new era of Kardashians has certainly begun.
Kendall's big sister Kim may have beaten her on the cover of Vogue (she and her husband Kanye West appeared on it in April 2014), but the cover of the magazine's September issue is in a league of its own.
The September issue is Vogue's best-selling issue of the year.
With a volume more akin to a coffee table book than a fashion magazine, the issue attracts a large number of advertisers (according to Fashionista, of the 832 pages of the tome, 615 pages were advertising).
The unveiling of its cover star is so eagerly awaited that in the last two years, pictures of the magazine leaked even before the official announcement.
Women who have already been on the cover include Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss.
In recent years, there have clearly been more "celebrities who model" than "models who are celebrities" on the cover.
Oscar-winning and Dior brand ambassador Jennifer Lawrence was on the cover in 2013, a year after Lady Gaga had the honor.
But even with the slim chance that Ms. Jenner — described by the magazine as the "breakthrough model" of her generation — falls under the earlier category, she's in good company.
These celebrities aren't related to famous people or reality stars or teens of today who know how to shoot a good Snapchat video (even if all of that applies to Jenner).
They are really talented women who excel in the entertainment industry.
Beyonce, who appeared on the last cover, had one of the most successful years of her career with the release of Lemonade.
Of course, not everyone likes Jenner's success.
With her reality TV story, Jenner's standing in the fashion world has always been a bit tense.
In June, former Victoria's Secret model Stephanie Seymour criticized Jenner and her colleague Gigi Hadid, calling them "the crap of the moment."
These feelings boiled up again when the news came out with Jenner's appearance on the cover of Vogue.
But riding on the displeasure seems to miss the point.
Kendall Jenner is on the cover of the September issue of Vogue.
She is a supermodel in the truest sense of the word.
She runs for Marc Jacobs.
She advertises her Estee Lauder primer.
She and all her sisters sell you pictures of themselves on their respective paywall apps.
She sells pictures she took of Cindy Crawford's daughter to LOVE magazine.
And in her spare time, she can be seen on reality TV. Probably just to see her sister Kourtney and her children.
Municipal law centers turn away 160,000 people annually
More than 160,000 of the country's most vulnerable are turned away annually by municipal law centers, as the industry braces for the impact of further funding cuts on already overburdened transactions.
In Queensland, three out of five people - mostly elderly people, immigrants, vulnerable workers, victims of violence and those who do not have resources for unjust evictions and the like - are already turned away when they seek free legal advice and redress.
Legal services provided by the municipality, which are already overutilized, are gearing up for further cuts.
As of June next year, these legal centers are expected to lose another 30 percent of their federal funds.
Director of Queesland's Community Law Centres, James Farrell, said the latest survey by the National Association of Community Law Centres found that thousands of people are already being turned away each year.
Farrell said the situation would only get worse without a repeal of the federal government's decision.
"Queensland's community law centres are chronically underfunded, which means thousands of people are being turned away from essential services you need," he said.
People who leave violent relationships, people with unmanageable and crushing debts, families going through separations, workers who have been unjustly laid off - all these people have problems of a legal nature and this survey shows that they cannot get the help they need.
The federal government will cut funding by 30 per cent starting in June 2017, which means thousands of more vulnerable people from Queensland will be forced to cope with their legal problems without any help.
We call on the Attorney General and Federal Minister of Justice and Queensland Senators George Brandis to immediately reverse these funding cuts so that people can get the help they need with legal issues.
Last year, the state government fulfilled its pledge to raise funding for legal aid to the national average.
It is now time to look at the needs of municipal law centres and their client communities, as well as for the Palaszczuk government to invest in this important work.
Donald Trump election campaign indicted after employee allegedly pulled gun
New York: Donald Trump's campaign has been charged with alleged inaction after being told that their North Carolina campaign manager pointed a gun at an employee in February while they were traveling in a jeep in February.
The incident is described in an indictment filed Wednesday in Charlotte state court by Vincent Bordini, a former software programmer for the campaign in that state.
Bordini said he waited months for the matter to be settled internally before realizing that "that wasn't going to happen."
The campaign manager, Earl Philip, "drew a pistol, put his right index finger on the trigger, and rammed the barrel into the back of Vincent's knee," Bordini said in his indictment.
After complaining to local and regional campaign management, Bordini discovered that at least four other people had already had the same experience with Phillip, he said in the indictment.
"Weapons don't have to be fired to cause damage," Bordini said.
The indictment comes just two days after the Republican presidential candidate sparked an uproar when he told a crowd in North Carolina that the "Second Amendment people" — gun owners and gun enthusiasts — should take action if his rival Hillary Clinton were elected and appointed judges.
Trump's campaign made it clear that the media had taken his words out of context and that he would not incite violence.
Bordidi's complaint seeks damages from the Due Diligence Breach Campaign and Philip for bodily harm and permanent mental harm.
Trump's press secretary Hope Hicks could not be reached for comment.
Attempts to contact Philip also failed.
WCCB, a local news station in Charlotte, reports that Phillip is no longer a contributor to the campaign.
Calls to his consulting firm, Innovative Consulting Services, were not answered.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has waged a controversial campaign so far.
The case is Bordini v. Donald J. Trump For President Inc., 16-CS-14300, Supreme Court, County of Mecklenburg (Charlotte).
Berlin/Schwerin: Poll before state elections: SPD and CDU lose
In the upcoming elections in the federal states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (4 September) and Berlin (18 September), considerable losses for the governing parties SPD and CDU are looming.
This was the result of representative surveys conducted by the opinion research institute INSA for the "Bild" newspaper (Friday).
While the red-black government coalition could continue to govern in the north, this is not possible according to the polls in Berlin.
In both states, however, the SPD would be the strongest party and would thus have a good chance of continuing to provide the head of government.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the SPD plummeted from 35.6 percent five years ago to 24 percent.
According to the survey, the party would thus be just ahead of the CDU, which could come back to 23 percent.
The third place is disputed between the Left and the AfD.
The Left would come to 19 percent (previously 18.4 percent), the AfD would be represented with 19 percent for the first time in the state parliament.
Despite slight losses, the Greens would return to the Schwerin state parliament with 6 percent (previously 8.7 percent).
NPD and FDP would not be represented in the state parliament with 3 percent each.
According to the survey, the SPD would only get 23 percent in the Berlin House of Representatives election (2011 election: 28.3 percent).
The CDU reached only 18 percent after 23.4 percent.
It would be behind the Greens with 19 percent (2011: 17.6 percent), but ahead of the Left with 15 percent (previously 11.7 percent).
The AfD would be represented with 14 percent for the first time in the House of Representatives.
With 5 percent, the FDP could hope for a return, the Pirates, on the other hand, would miss the move in contrast to 2011.
Nokia 9000 Communicator: The first smartphone
E-mail and Internet in slow motion: 20 years ago, the Nokia Communicator came onto the market.
The successors dominate the world today - its manufacturer experienced a disaster.
The device weighed almost half a kilogram and weighed more than four times as much as an iPhone 5.
It was thicker and bigger, so it didn't fit well in the hand.
On the contrary, it was pretty clunky.
The built-in memory was initially eight megabytes, which would be enough for about two high-resolution selfies today.
An iPhone is now delivered with at least 16 gigabytes.
The "Nokia 9000 Communicator" hit stores exactly 20 years ago, on August 15, 1996 - and it was the first smartphone.
For a few euros, lovers can still buy the devices on the Internet, but they somehow date back to the Stone Age of the Internet age.
20 years ago, however, the Communicator was a sensation.
The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer had announced the product a few months earlier at the computer fair Cebit in Hanover as a "pocket-sized office".
In fact, the new mobile phone could do a lot by the standards of the time: SMS and e-mails could be sent and received, the communicator could also be reached by fax.
Even access to web pages was possible via HTML browser, albeit agonizingly slow.
A calculator was available, a digital address book and an electronic calendar.
There was a small antenna, and the phone could be opened similar to a laptop.
Then there was a small keyboard and a black-and-white screen.
The price was quite proud: 2700 D-Mark, i.e. about 1400 euros.
The average selling price of a smartphone in Germany in 2015 was 392 euros.
No one could have guessed in August 1996 that the Communicator would be the beginning of the smartphone era.
Since then, everything has changed.
The smart phones are a success story, though not for Nokia.
The mobile phone division of the Finns experienced an unprecedented disaster, was finally sold to Microsoft and wound up.
The market today is dominated by providers, all of whom came much later than Nokia.
Being online anytime and anywhere is everyday life for many people today.
In 2015, there were nearly two billion smartphone users worldwide.
About 1.4 billion devices were sold, Samsung and Apple alone account for 555 million units.
Global sales of the devices amount to around 400 billion euros.
In addition, there are the well-running business of the countless app providers and the telecommunications companies.
In the meantime, an entire industry has emerged around the smartphone.
The decisive breakthrough to the mass market came at the beginning of 2007, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the introduction of the iPhone at the Mac World.
He promised three devices in one: a music player, a telephone and an Internet communicator, all easy to operate via touch screen.
Apple's triumphal march began, and even today the iPhone is the group's most important product.
Nokia, Motorola and Blackberry, which dominated the market, were left behind.
They eventually disappeared, Blackberry is struggling.
Apple and Asian providers such as Samsung are now calling the shots.
The smartphone is a matter of course 20 years after its invention.
On average, every German now looks at his mobile phone 88 times a day.
"We all have to learn to put our smartphones away," said Janina Kugel, the Siemens Managing Board member responsible for human resources.
Permanent accessibility is now considered both a blessing and a curse.
England must steer the Olympic spirit and expand Heathrow
Heathrow will bring renewal and prosperity not only to our local communities and across London, but across the country.
For me, this was the biggest attraction at Heathrow, just as it was in London in 2012, when we went to great lengths to ensure that all our nations and regions benefited from the Games.
The Olympics brought great benefits to Stratford and the East End.
And we will do that again by creating new opportunities for locals and businesses near Heathrow.
For our local communities alone, we will create 10,000 new apprenticeships, 40,000 new jobs and put an end to youth unemployment in the airport area.
Just as they were ahead of us in London 2012, there will be those who will think that the challenge of expanding Heathrow is too great.
I was told that England will never be ready for the Games and that we will embarrass ourselves on the world stage.
The doubters were wrong in 2012 and they will be wrong at Heathrow.
There are always obstacles to overcome, but Heathrow answers every question he asks.
Like the Olympics, Heathrow is an infrastructure project for many, not individuals.
Expansion is an opportunity to create up to 180,000 new jobs, £211 billion in economic growth and leave a legacy of skills and employment both around the airport and across the UK.
We have a great team at Heathrow who have delivered a £11 billion infrastructure investment programme on time and on budget, from T5 – voted the world's best airport terminal for five years in a row to T2 built amid the world's two busiest catwalks.
Now they are poised to deliver a third catwalk, backed by £16 billion in private investment.
The London Games of 2012 were a huge success for the UK and I am confident that the expansion of Heathrow will be one as well.
It is time we steered that Olympic spirit and expand Heathrow, securing our future trade and creating a legacy of skills and employment that England can be proud of.
Lord Paul Deighton is Chairman of the Heathrow Board and former Commercial Secretary to the Treasury
Adblock Plus, Facebook in the "cat and mouse game" regarding ad blocking
For companies that make money from online advertising, attempts to circumvent ad blocking are a "cat and mouse game," according to one of the software manufacturers.
On Thursday, just two days after Facebook announced that it would block ad blocking on its desktop site, Adblock Plus published a blog post saying that users could update their filters in the program to block ads on the social network again.
On Tuesday, Facebook said its desktop page would change the coding regarding its ads to make it harder for ad blocks to detect which part of the page is advertising.
But Adblock announced that it has found a new way to bypass the new codes.
In a blog post, Adblock spokesperson Ben Williams wrote that "this kind of back-and-forth battle between the ad-blocking open source community and bypassers has been going on since the invention of ad blockers," and that it's possible that Facebook will soon come up with a new solution.
The fact that the world's largest social media company has joined the fight is a strong indication of how worrying ad blockers have become for the industry.
Globally, around 200 million people use ad blockers, according to a study last year by Pagefair and Adobe; Almost four times as much in 2013.
With 1.03 billion daily active users accessing Facebook through their mobile devices, mobile advertising accounts for 84 percent of Facebook's advertising revenue.
The company is targeting ad blockers on desktop PCs, as mobile ad blockers have no effect on Facebook's mobile app for the social network and Instagram, a spokesperson said.
Advertising on desktop PCs accounts for a large enough share of revenue that Facebook considers it worthwhile to invest in such a move.
On Tuesday, Facebook said it would update its "ad preferences tool" to give people more control over ads targeted at them.
On Thursday, Facebook claimed that Adblock's new filters would be worrisome because they would also block content on the page that is not advertising.
"This is not a positive experience for users, so we plan to address the issue," a Facebook spokesperson said in an email.
Ad blockers are a blunt tool, which is why we've instead focused on developer tools like Ad Preferences to put more control in people's hands.
Woman run over in suspected suicide on Swiss motorway
The victim was lying on the highway in the middle of the night.
Police are calling witnesses after a woman was run over by several vehicles on a highway in the early hours of Thursday in a suspected suicide.
The incident occurred on the A1 near Morges in the canton of Vaud shortly after midnight.
A woman lay down in the dark "in an act of desperation" on the street and was hit by several cars, police in Vaud said.
It is obvious that a Swiss woman aged 49, who was run over by several vehicles, including a truck, wanted to kill herself.
She died on the spot.
Several drivers have already been questioned, but some have still not been identified, police said, who are urging them and any witness to the incident to come forward.
An investigation has been opened, which is a "logical" step in such a situation, Gilles Hofstetter told Le Tribune de Geneve.
However, it remains to be seen whether one of the drivers will be displayed.
Was a collision avoidable?
That's something the prosecutor has to decide," Hofstetter said.
Two similar cases in the last five years show that drivers are not held accountable.
In each of the two cases - in which a person walked in the dark on the highway - it was decided that motorists do not have to assume that a pedestrian is walking on the highway in the middle of the night, according to the newspaper.
Last year, a policewoman was acquitted of negligent homicide after she ran over and killed a man lying on the A1 near Payerne one night in August 2014.
The 22-year-old victim had been drinking and became unconscious on the street, the court heard.
The court found that the policewoman -- who had responded to an emergency call -- was driving in a justified manner and that the presence of a man on the street was a "completely extraordinary and unpredictable situation," the judge said.
Anyone with more information about Thursday's incident near Morges should contact the police on 021 644 83 46 or 021 644 44 44.
NASA climate model: Venus was once habitable
Venus was probably once habitable, according to projections from a new NASA climate model.
Scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies developed a model to discover Venus' past using tools and algorithms similar to those used by climate scientists.
The model was designed to determine whether Venus, with its hot, waterless surface and CO2-dense atmosphere, could have once exhibited Earth-like conditions.
Scientists have previously suggested that Venus' slow rotation could be explained by its dense atmosphere.
But the latest simulation suggests that Venus may have had a thin, Earth-like atmosphere and yet continued to rotate slowly.
The model also shed light on the topography of early Venus.
The planet probably had more arid areas than Earth, but once had enough water and geographic variability to harbor life and protected it from rapid evaporation.
Early Venus also benefited from a sun that was 30 percent duller.
"In the GISS model simulation, Venus' slow rotation exposes its daytime side to the Sun for nearly two months," GISS scientist Anthony Del Genio explained in a press release.
This heats the surface and produces rain, which creates a thick layer of clouds, which acts like an umbrella to shield the surface from much of the sun's heat.
The result is average temperatures a few degrees cooler than Earth's today.
The model produced a history of Venus similar to the evolution previously suspected by planetary scientists.
Although it was once believed to be habitable, Venus has been exposed to too much heat and ultraviolet light over billions of years.
Their oceans evaporated and their water vapor was burned away by ultraviolet light.
When its hydrogen escaped, all that remained was a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide with a deadly greenhouse effect -- Venus as we know it today.
The researchers shared the results of their new Venus climate model in the Geophysical Research Letters.
Patrick Roy resigns as coach of the Avalanche
Patrick Roy stepped down as coach and vice president of hockey operations for the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, citing a lack of say in the team's decision-making process.
Colorados alternate president/general manager Joe Sakic confirmed the decision, noting that the club will immediately look for a new coach.
"For the past three years, I have fulfilled my duties as head coach and vice president of hockey operations for the Colorado Avalanche with energy, passion and determination," Roy, 50, said in a statement.
I thought long and hard over the summer about how I could improve this team to give it more depth that it needs and take it to a higher level.
To achieve this, the vision of the coach and Vice President of Hockey Operations must be perfectly aligned with that of the organization.
He must also have a say in decisions that affect the team's performance.
These conditions are currently not met.
Sakic, who hired Roy on May 23, 2013, thanked him for his contributions to the team.
"Patrick informed me of this decision today," Sakic said.
We all appreciate what he has done for our organization and wish him all the best for the future.
Roy was named the league's best coach during his debut season with the 2013-14 Avalanches as the winner of the Jack Adams Award.
He led the club to 112 points and first place in the Central Vision, but Colorado was beaten by Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs and missed the offseason in each of the last two years.
The Avalanches recorded a 39-39-4 mark in the 2015-16 season, dropping five points behind the Wild for a second wildcard spot in the Western Conference.
As a Hall of Fame goaltender, Roy won four Stanley Cups -- two with the Montreal Canadiens and the Avalanche.
North Sea oil workers resume talks, suspend strike
Labour disputes over North Sea oil workers' wages will be suspended while all parties to the dispute sit down for a new round of talks, negotiators said.
Strikes against oilfield services provider Wood Group have been sporadic on North Sea platforms operated by Royal Dutch Shell.
"Wood Group, as well as the Unite and RMT unions, can confirm that we have agreed to restart the process of resolving the current dispute," they said in a joint statement.
We will hold some full-day meetings over the next few weeks, starting early next year, to re-address the issues.
The unions said their latest strike, the first in over 25 years, was a protest against possible wage cuts of up to 30 percent.
Wood Group has cut rates to its contractors in the North Sea by about 9 percent this year due to negative market pressures.
The company's rate cut follows a 10 percent decline for onshore contractors in 2014.
The company said additional cuts give the company the space it needs to get through the market downturn.
Shell, for its part, has laid off thousands of people and announced plans to go out of its oil and gas operations in up to 10 countries as it streamlines its operations as a result of its mega-merger with British energy company BG Group.
Energy companies are under pressure due to lower crude oil prices, an economic situation exacerbated by Britain's decision to leave the European Union in June.
Scottish MP Dave Anderson met with labour leaders earlier this week to discuss one of the biggest labour disputes to take place in the North Sea in a generation.
The North Sea is important for the regional economy, he said.
"In the North Sea and across the country, we need an economy that works for many, not just a few," he said in a statement.
In 2016, less than $1.4 billion in spending on new projects in the North Sea is expected, compared to an average of around $7 billion over the past five years.
Kepler measures rotation rate of stars in the Pleiades star cluster
The latest mission with the Kepler Space Telescope has helped astronomers collect the most complete catalog of rotation rates among the stars of the Pleiades star cluster.
The new data will help astronomers understand why stars in the cluster rotate at different rates and how rotation periods relate to planet formation.
"We hope that by comparing our results with other star clusters, we will learn more about the relationship between a star's mass, its age, and even the history of its solar system," Luisa Rebull, a researcher at Caltech's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center in Pasadena, said in a press release.
The Pleiades star cluster lies 445 light years from Earth.
Many stars in this cluster that formed around 125 million years ago are now reaching adulthood.
They are now spinning the fastest.
At peak rotation rates, these maturing stars emit large amounts of stellar winds.
As these winds travel through the magnetic fields of the stars, they have a braking effect on the stars.
As a star ages, its rotation rate begins to slow down.
Kepler measures the rotation rate of each star by detecting the time between the appearance of a recognizable starspot -- such as sunspots.
The latest catalog of rotation rates indicates that more massive stars spin more slowly than less massive stars.
Rebull compares the stars to dancers, with larger stars pirouettes slower than smaller ones.
"In the 'ballet' of the Pleiades, we see that slow rotors tend to be more massive, whereas faster rotors tend to be very bright stars," Rebull said.
Because the star cluster is so close to the Pleiades, it serves as an ideal cosmic laboratory to compare stellar qualities such as rotation rates.
"The Pleiades star cluster provides an anchor for theoretical models of stellar rotation in both directions, younger and older," Rebull said.
There is still a lot ahead of us that we would like to learn more about, how the how, when and why stars slow down their rotation rates and hang up their "dancing shoes", so to speak.
Rebull and her colleagues have detailed their latest analysis of the Pleiades' rotation rates in three newspaper reports, which will soon appear in the Astronomical Journal.
A controversial baseball star steps down
Alex Rodriguez's tears ran from base to base faster than the US baseball star in his best days.
After his emotional retirement announcement, the 41-year-old pro will wear the jersey of his New York Yankees for the last time on August 12 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
"I love this game and this team."
"I say goodbye to both," said the 14-time Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game participant.
Rodriguez was voted the league's Most Valuable Player three times, and in 2009 he won the World Series with the Yankees.
His signature on a ten-year contract has earned him $27 million annually since 2007.
Until the end of the contract on 31 December 2017, he will act as a consultant and youth coach - with full salary.
As a player, Rodriguez paid it back for a long time with performance.
With 696 home runs, 3114 hits and 2021 points for his teams ("runs") for the Seattle Mariners (1994 to 2000), the Texas Rangers (2001 to 2004) and since 2005 the Yankees, he achieved some milestones.
With Hall of Fame members Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, only two other baseball players have similar stats in the most important statistics.
But the 41-year-old is unlikely to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Because as successful as Rodriguez - nicknamed "A-Rod" - was on the field, as controversial is his appearance off the court.
Already in 2009, the superstar admitted on "ESPN" to have taken banned steroids between 2001 and 2003.
In August 2013, he was suspended for 211 games until the end of 2014 due to involvement in the so-called Biogenesis scandal.
Rodriguez is considered the main suspect of having received performance-enhancing drugs for years through an anti-aging clinic in South Florida.
After a legal dispute, the ban was reduced to 162 matches.
"The league might even have done me a favor for 2014, because I played 20 years without a break," Rodriguez said smugly at the time.
Even his farewell days are not silent.
While many baseball legends get the big stage in their final games, Rodriguez often had to sit on the bench.
"My job doesn't include a farewell tour."
"My job involves trying to win every game," Yankees coach Joe Girardi said.
After all, Rodriguez, who was married to actress Cameron Diaz and is said to have relationships with pop star Madonna and actress Kate Hudson, received expressions of sympathy from fans of Yankee arch-rival Boston Red Sox.
"We want A-Rod", sang the supporters in the 4-9 defeat against the Rodriguez team.
Olympics 2016: Chen Xinyi, Silwia Danekowa and Adrian Zielinski are first doping cases
Caught: Due to a positive doping test, weightlifter Adrian Zielinski from Poland is not allowed to start in Rio.
Rio de Janeiro - The 2016 Olympic Games are overshadowed by the first official doping cases.
A caught athlete almost won a medal.
Before the seventh day of competition, the first official doping cases have become known at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The Chinese swimmer Chen Xinyi, 3000-meter steeplechase runner Silwia Danekowa from Bulgaria and the Polish weightlifter Adrian Zielinski tested positive in Brazil and were excluded - immediately before the start of the already critically eyed athletics competitions, this news comes at an inopportune time.
Last Sunday, the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, which is used as a masking agent for doping substances, had already been detected in Chen's case.
The International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed her exclusion from the Olympic Games on Friday afternoon local time.
On Sunday, the 18-year-old had finished fourth in the final of the 100 m butterfly, only missing the bronze medal by 0.09 seconds.
On Friday, Chen should have participated in the heats over 50 m freestyle.
Chen has applied to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the opening of the B sample and a hearing.
The national federation takes the matter "very seriously and demands full cooperation from Chen in the investigation," Xinhua quoted from a statement: "We will cooperate with the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and will accept the ruling."
For the first time in history, it is no longer the IOC but the CAS that is responsible for sanctioning athletes with positive cases.
Also on the night of Rio, the news of the positive test leaked through Danekova, the 33-year-old went on the offensive herself.
"I had three tests, all negative, and my fourth test was positive," this was "an incredible shock," she told Bulgarian TV channel BNT.
She was innocent, "the only explanation could be dietary supplements," said the athlete.
According to the report, the banned substance is said to be the blood doping agent EPO.
Danekova was provisionally suspended, according to BNT, the B sample should have already been positive.
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borissov immediately criticized the athlete.
"I don't understand why the athletes don't draw the right conclusions," he said: "We Bulgarians are under observation, so many have already been excluded."
For example, all weightlifters from the chronically doping-ridden nation are not allowed to participate in Rio.
On Friday, the case of "Adrian Zielinski" became known, the London Olympic champion in the class up to 85 kg was tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone like his brother Tomasz three days earlier.
Both deny the intake, but both are not allowed to start in the class up to 94 kg.
Before the start of the track and field athletes, the Danekova case in particular is another serious blow to the reputation of the entire sport.
With one exception, the IAAF had banned the entire Russian team from starting because of systematic doping, and the runner nation Kenya is also producing a lot of bad news in Rio.
In swimming, the previous offenses in China had also caused fierce clashes between the athletes.
The Frenchman Camille Lacourt harshly attacked the Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang.
"Sun Yang pees purple."
"When I see the podium in the 200m freestyle, I want to throw up," Lacourt said on French radio.
Sun was also at the center of a dispute with the Australian Mack Horton.
"I have no time and no respect for doping cheaters," he said.
Sun had tested positive for the stimulant trimetazidine at the 2014 Chinese Championships, but only had to serve a three-month ban.
Data theft: This is how perfidious hackers extort their ransom
Programmers of blackmail malware are currently targeting companies - and are successful.
According to a recent survey by malware defense specialists Malwarebytes among 540 companies in North America, Great Britain and Germany, 40 percent of the companies surveyed have been victims of a ransomware attack at least once, sometimes several times, in the past twelve months.
In Germany, almost 20 percent of companies have already been the target of ransomware extortion.
40 percent of the victims willingly paid the ransoms demanded by the perpetrators in order to be able to use the attacked systems and data again.
According to Malwarebytes' observations, the perpetrators are increasingly specializing their ransomware in attacks on corporate networks.
If they are successful there, the potentially extortable ransom is significantly higher than for private users.
"We are currently observing a frighteningly rapid evolution of malware," explains Malwarebytes boss Marcin Kleczynski in an interview with Die Welt.
In 2008, most malware programs were still designed to send advertisements.
Then the perpetrators discovered blackmail software for themselves.
At first, private users were the target, but the shift to corporate attacks has been alarmingly fast in recent months.
Ransomware works according to a simple pattern: Once active on a victim's computer, it searches for recently modified files such as Word, Excel or database files, as well as archives of images and videos.
The ransomware encrypts these files and permanently deletes the originals.
Subsequently, the software presents the demands of the blackmailers.
In order to get the final encryption code to the files, the victims have to transfer money - usually in the form of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
But where the personal photo database is at stake for private users, companies are concerned with sensitive customer data or project databases, without which production comes to a standstill.
Accordingly, the damage is higher when ransomware strikes.
22 percent of the affected German companies reported sales losses due to ransomware, 13 percent even had to interrupt their business activities completely, in one case people were in mortal danger.
In Germany, hospitals have already been victims of attacks several times, whose patients may be acutely threatened by the loss of medical records.
"We always tell the victims: Don't pay, you're just promoting the problem," Kleczynski explains.
But 80 to 90 percent of companies that pay get their data back.
It is difficult for managers to reject the demand of the perpetrators in the face of a standstill in the company.
The hackers, in turn, know this and try everything to build a good reputation.
In a recent study, the security researchers at F-Secure examined the user interfaces and the contact with the blackmailers and came to the conclusion: The perpetrators are actually trying to build up a kind of customer service in order to make more money.
They explain to their victims via chat how to pay with Bitcoin, set up freely accessible support websites or decrypt sample files for free.
And if private individuals are redeemed after payments of a few hundred euros, companies sometimes have to negotiate hard and pay five-digit sums to get their data back unencrypted.
In view of the potentially high and relatively risk-free profits from ransomware extortion, hackers are becoming more and more professional and sharing the work, explains security expert Chester Wisniewski from antivirus provider Sophos: "A single person can write a ransomware within about a week."
However, it is more likely that it is three or four people.
The programmers then sell their malware in the form of a software kit to the actual blackmailers.
The previous malware kits were created by purchasing the malware itself, consulting, and additional tools for a one-time, fixed price between $1000 and $10,000.
"Included is a customization tool so smaller configurations, look and feel can be changed," says Wisniewski.
The blackmailers then look for more hackers to spread the freshly purchased software among the victims.
We live in a service economy.
So you log into one of the underground forums, buy the set from one criminal and commission another to install the software on as many PCs as possible.
Payment is made per infected computer.
"Criminals usually hire spammers to spread it," Wisniewski explains.
The risk of ransomware is now known to many companies that are better able to secure their data.
Over 50 percent of corporate IT managers in the Malwarebytes survey trust them to fend off ransomware using file backups and scanner software.
Accordingly, the perpetrators are already pursuing new strategies.
"If the encryption of data alone is no longer a sufficient threat for successful leakage, the perpetrators instead threaten to publish sensitive data such as customer lists or price calculations," explains Malwarebytes CEO Marcin Kleczynski.
Depending on the type of data, the damage potential is thus many times higher than before.
In the future, the perpetrators could also target completely new targets in the Internet of Things.
At the Defcon hacker conference, security researchers demonstrated how they could get control of an Internet-connected thermostat.
In the middle of winter, the activation of such a blocked heating system could well be worth a ransom for many victims.
If the perpetrators then block an entire production line in a factory instead of heating in the future, ransomware could also become an issue in Industry 4.0.
One for all occasions
HONDA HR-V is flexible and suitable for everyday use
In the small HR-V Honda wants to pack everything: a little SUV, a little coupe and also the versatility of a minivan.
Sounds pretty overloaded, but the HR-V, which was built on the same new platform as the new Jazz, actually proves to be extremely flexible in everyday life.
Although the HR-V, which is only 1.60 m high, looks rather small, the passengers have plenty of space both in the first row and in the rear, it does not seem cramped at any point.
The materials of the interior are well processed and look pleasant, only the top of the cockpit falls off a bit.
The HR-V is more versatile than comparable vehicles in terms of storage space.
Not only is there a boot of 453 l with raised backrests and 1026 l with folded backrests, but there are the "Magic Seats".
This is less magical than it sounds: The seats of the rear seat can be folded up like cinema seats and thus offer storage space that is 1.24 m high from floor to ceiling.
The trunk can be loaded well, but the loading height of 650 mm is slightly higher than the comparable Peugeot 2008.
The tested 1.6-litre diesel with 88 kW/120 hp accelerates the HR-V very powerfully in wide speed ranges thanks to the torque of up to 300 Nm.
However, he is likely to do his work a little quieter.
The daily fuel consumption of 4.7 l/100 km is pleasing.
There is another engine: a 1.5-litre petrol engine with 96 kW/130 hp.
All-wheel drive is not offered.
The handling is balanced, a good compromise between dynamics and comfort.
However, the steering should be a bit more direct.
The equipment leaves nothing to be desired in the tested top variant "Executive".
The safety systems include City Emergency Brake Assist (operates up to 32 km/h), Collision Warning System and Lane Keeping Assist.
The collision warning system is sometimes irritating because it evaluates many obstacles as "approaching objects" when manoeuvring.
The high-beam assistant works very reliably.
And the intelligent speed glider reacts to traffic sign recognition and reduces speed if necessary.
However, full connectivity is only available for the top equipment: 7-inch touchscreen, navigation system, app integration and more.
Two USB and one HDMI socket are located under the armrest and are therefore a bit cumbersome to reach.
The approximately 29000 euros for the well-equipped top diesel are fine.
Who does not want to invest so much, gets the gasoline engine from 20000 euros, the diesel from 23000 euros.
The engines meet the Euro 6 emission standard.
With the HR-V, Honda offers a versatile and everyday car.
Airline is not liable: Fall on passenger boarding bridge
An airline is not liable for the fall of a passenger on the passenger boarding bridge.
Because liability is only conceivable in the case of dangers that are typical for air traffic, argued the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (Az.: 18 U 124/14).
The plaintiff had broken a kneecap in the fall.
However, the accident could have happened anywhere - it was a general risk to life, according to the court.
The airline did not have to pay the man any damages.
In case of illness: When does the organizer pay
Sick holidaymakers only get money back after their trip if the cause of the illness can be found beyond doubt in the hotel.
However, this is only the case if more than ten percent of the guests have been proven to show the same symptoms.
In the case at issue, a family was seriously ill with diarrhoea and vomiting on the second day of their holiday in Turkey.
She spent almost the entire holiday in the room.
The holidaymakers attributed their illness to a defective sewage treatment plant that had allegedly polluted the seawater.
The family was of the opinion that the trip had been defective - and sued the organizer.
The plaintiffs were unsuccessful in court.
Admittedly, the sewage treatment plant was indeed defective.
But the organizer only learned about it shortly before the plaintiffs' departure.
Until then, he had to assume that the sea water was fine.
He had therefore not violated his duty to provide information, according to the judgment.
Especially since no impurities were found in the samples of the water.
The illness of several hotel guests - possibly by infection with each other - belongs to the general risk of life.
Of 691 guests, only 38 were ill.
De Maizière said that after the violence perpetrated by refugees in Würzburg and Ansbach in July, many people were worried about further attacks.
The state must react calmly and decisively to terrorist threats at the same time.
One thing is certain: our country will not respond to the violence of the perpetrators with hatred and division.
We will not begrudge this triumph to the terrorists.
If criminals had to leave the country more quickly, however, this would increase security and also strengthen the population's approval of refugee policy.
De Maizière wants the proposals to be implemented by the 2017 Bundestag elections.
He also announced a further increase in the number of security forces, "in the mid-four-digit range over several years."
Sympathy advertising for terrorism must again be punishable.
Video surveillance is to be improved, and gun laws are to be amended in such a way that, above all, the purchase of weapons on the Internet is made more difficult.
According to de Maizière, the recently much-discussed duty of confidentiality for doctors should be preserved.
However, he wants to look for solutions in dialogue with the medical profession on how to reduce the risk to citizens, he said with a view to mental abnormalities.
In order to counteract the radicalisation of refugees, the Minister considers better social care to be necessary.
Teachers need to be better prepared to deal with traumatised people.
To prosecute criminals in special areas of the Internet (Darknet), de Maizière plans to use undercover investigators.
SPD leader Gabriel said: "The SPD is ready to talk about anything that contributes to further increasing security."
It was important that the Minister of the Interior had spoken out clearly against actionism.
"That was a slap in the face for the agitators in the CDU/CSU," Gabriel told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Friday).
De Maizière had previously rejected calls from the Union for a burqa ban and the abolition of dual citizenship.
He considers a general ban on the full veil to be constitutionally problematic.
You cannot ban everything you refuse, and I refuse to wear the burqa.
You can talk about rules, for example, in road traffic or for witnesses in court.
Green Party leader Simone Peter accused the minister of wanting to simulate energy and the ability to act with ever new anti-terror packages.
Left Party leader Bernd Riexinger said: "Snappy slogans and a tightening of the right of residence do not bring the people in this country more security."
Better traffic flow on the motorway feeder road
It regularly accumulates on the bypass - here is a picture from November.
But that is about to change: The right-turn lane is to be extended.
This is good news for all motorists who are stuck in traffic jams every evening on the surrounding road during rush hour when they drive over the motorway feeder road (A 43).
Next Tuesday and Wednesday (16/17 August), the Landesbetrieb Straßenbau will extend the right-turn lane by 700 metres in the area between Hammer Straße and the Weseler Straße exit.
Motorists can then thread directly from Hammer Straße to the right.
The big advantage: The traffic splits up earlier, which improves the overall flow on the busy section of the federal highway 51.
The idea with the extended exit had the CDU parliamentary group in the district representation Münster-West.
The narrowing of the road on the feeder road annoys motorists, especially between 17 and 19 o'clock.
On weekdays, the backlog extends to the bridge over Albersloher Weg and sometimes beyond.
The reason is the bottleneck on the B 51 shortly before the Weseler Straße exit.
From here, traffic is only directed over the motorway bridge in one lane.
The second lane had to be dismantled a good one and three-quarters of a year ago.
The reason: Static calculations had shown that the bridge no longer has the necessary load-bearing capacity to accommodate heavy goods traffic in two lanes.
How long this bottleneck and the associated weekday traffic jam will last, the responsible state company can not say.
However, years are to be expected: because the bridge has an official remaining useful life until 2034.
For the extension of the right-turn lane, the state company has deliberately chosen the less busy time during the school holidays, because obstructions are to be expected.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, traffic will be routed past the construction site in one lane.
Intercultural Journey: Cultural Offers for Schools
The international class of the Forest School visited the play "The Invisible House".
The association Nima's and the Junges Theater are now planning a music project.
The association Nima's enables young people with a migration and refugee background to visit cultural institutions in Münster.
The "Klasse International" of the Waldschule Kinderhaus attended a performance of the award-winning play "Das unsichtbare Haus" by the Junges Theater Münster.
In the context of the "Intercultural Journey" initiated by the Nima's association, 19 students between the ages of eleven and 15 visited the production in the Small House.
Since the beginning of the year, the association, which has set itself the goal of the cultural integration of young people with a migration and refugee background, has been offering schools with welcome classes the opportunity to visit cultural institutions in Münster as part of this project.
Most of the young people in the class came to Münster between September 2015 and March 2016 from Afghanistan, Iran, Serbia and Syria, among others, and spoke little German.
Thanks to the choreographies, the scenic images and video animations, it was possible for them to follow the course of action, according to the press release of the Junges Theater Münster.
The association Nima's, founded by Dr. Tannaz Westerberg from Sprakel, and the Junges Theater will work together in the coming season as part of a music theatre project.
From October to December, young people with and without a refugee and migration background between the ages of 14 and 20 will have the opportunity to attend professionally guided courses in singing, dance, acting and music.
Offers for children and families in the field of theatre and theatrical language teaching are being planned.
The project "Intercultural Journey" continues.
In view of the increased number of refugees, the association expects many classes to want to participate.
Rain instead of shooting stars: hope for weather improvement
The weather has thwarted the shooting star gazers in the southwest of Germany on Friday night - but there is still hope.
The night was poorly suited because of clouds and rain to observe the sky spectacle, said the chairman of the observatory Welzheim, Hans-Ulrich Keller, on Friday morning.
Our hope lies on Saturday night.
The weather should be good, then we will certainly see many shooting stars in the sky.
The star scales are Perseids, which are among the fastest shooting stars at 216,000 kilometers per hour.
They got their name because they seem to come from the constellation Perseus, which rises in the northeast.
Restful night: tips against sleep disorders
In the evening you roll around forever, at night you lie awake for hours, in the morning you can no longer think of sleep long before the alarm clock rings.
This is anything but relaxing.
After all, you are in good company with such problems: According to the Robert Koch Institute, about a quarter of adults have sleep disorders and more than ten percent often or permanently perceive their sleep as not restful.
How do sleep problems or sleep disorders manifest themselves?
There are several forms of sleep disorders, and they can be based on a variety of causes, emphasizes Hans-Günter Weeß, board member of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine.
What is commonly understood by this, however, is insomnia, i.e. a disturbance falling asleep and staying asleep.
Many people find sleeping through the night unsatisfactory or inadequate, says Jens Wagenknecht, board member of the German Family Physicians Association with a practice in Varel, Lower Saxony.
What is behind sleep disorders?
The causes of sleep disorders are complex.
Behind this can be organic, psychological or behavioral factors, but also medication.
Not infrequently, the sleep disorder is an expression of another disease.
"Waking up very early is common, especially in depression," says Weeß.
And it may be that different factors are interdependent.
For example, if you have a herniated disc, you can lie badly, wake up every two to three hours and possibly start thinking about everyday problems and worries, Weeß gives an example.
This leads to tension, and sleep is no longer possible.
When should you see a doctor with sleep disorders?
Anyone who does not sleep well over a period of a month in at least three nights a week and is impaired during the day should go to the doctor, advises Weeß.
The impairment can look very different: You are exhausted, tired, not rested, have difficulty with attention and concentration, are easily irritable, have mood swings or physical complaints such as stomach or headaches.
To alleviate the sleep disorder, it is important to find out its causes.
Treatment options include behavioral changes, cognitive behavioral therapy or medication - classic sleeping pills only in exceptional cases and for a maximum of two weeks.
There are hardly any established sleep physicians in Germany, emphasizes Prof. Ingo Fietze, head of the interdisciplinary Sleep Medicine Center of the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Therefore, you should first contact the family doctor for sleep problems, advises Weeß.
He can clarify with examinations whether the problems have a physical cause.
Who should go to the sleep lab, and what happens there?
For examination in the sleep laboratory, physicians advise, for example, in snoring with breathing interruptions, in pathological daytime sleepiness, in sleepwalkers or if you do not find the cause of a sleep disturbance, explains Fietze.
You don't really have to prepare for the examination.
You should spend the day normally.
"Just please don't take a nap," says Fietze.
After wiring, you go to bed at your normal time.
In addition to the electrodes on the body, you wear a nasal cannula, a chest strap and a feeler on your finger.
In addition, a camera on the ceiling records the sleeper.
How can those affected get the problems under control?
There are quite a few adjusting screws that you can use for a better sleep.
Weeß lists: Regular bedtimes and getting up, do not lie in bed too long, do not sleep during the day, do not watch TV to fall asleep, avoid alcohol and do not look at the clock at night - then you start to calculate immediately, and that is not at all conducive.
What the jungle camp has to do with missing medals in swimming
The former German swimmer Markus Deibler has commented on the disappointing performance of the DSV team at Olympis via Facebook.
In December 2014, he won gold for the first time at the Short Course World Championships in Doha and set his first world record at the same time.
Now the former DSV athlete Markus Deibler has put himself in front of his criticized ex-teammates via Facebook.
"In a country where an Olympic champion gets 20,000 € bonus and a jungle king 150,000 € nobody should be surprised about missing medals," wrote the 26-Year-old in the night to Friday on his Facebook page.
The support system in swimming is bad, but the doping controls are very good.
We cannot compete with countries that promote a great deal and do not look very closely at the issue of doping or even pursue it.
"I'm not saying that the controls should be stopped here," he continued.
If he wanted to make a comeback, Deibler would have to be registered with the National Anti-Doping Agency Germany (NADA) nine months before his first start.
This is exactly how it should be done with countries.
"Anyone who cannot be controlled by independent WADA/FINA inspectors for a certain time before the World Cup/OS is not allowed to participate," demands the Hamburger-by-choice, who now runs an ice cream parlor.
Airport: Gang of baggage thieves arrested
Professional thieves at Dusseldorf Airport
Civilian investigators of the Düsseldorf police succeeded on Thursday in the arrest of two women and two men aged 50 to 61 years.
The suspects had committed several bag and luggage thefts as a gang.
Around 9:30 p.m., civilian officials recognized a gang in the area of Düsseldorf Airport, which was known to the police from past theft offenses.
The two women and two men had committed several offences since mid-July this year and had acted jointly, in a collaborative manner and in a particularly professional manner.
The specialists of the Kriminalkommissariat 34 can prove four acts to the thieves, who had entered Germany specifically to commit crimes.
They had captured a total of over 15,000 euros.
Old buildings, a few linden trees, in between a remnant of cobblestones: Rigaer Straße in Berlin-Friedrichshain does not seem like that at first glance, but the police count it among the "dangerous places" of the city.
If you walk along the street from east to west, you will pass playgrounds, a freshly painted kindergarten and a health food store.
On the façade of a gray house, someone sprayed "ugly!"
Opposite a Lidl, which is also to be demolished soon, is already being built: By 2017, a house with high windows and 133 new rental apartments is to be built here.
However, articles about this "trendy district", as the responsible real estate company Friedrichshain calls it, have been preferably illustrated with burning cars in recent weeks.
The reason is the house with the number 94: Once it was occupied, now the residents have leases, but on the ground floor rooms are still occupied and are used for events.
Since the beginning of the year, Berlin's Interior Senator Henkel in particular has repeatedly spoken out in favour of a tough police crackdown on the project, describing the area as a "no-go zone" for police officers and the 94 as the starting point for autonomous violence.
After the rooms on the ground floor, the cadre forge, were cleared on June 22 with 300 police officers, the police patrolled for three weeks, according to official statements, with 30 to 40 officers and three squad cars on site, blocked off parts of the street and prevented visitors from entering the house with the number 94.
Meanwhile, construction workers renovated the rooms on behalf of the unknown homeowners.
On July 13, a Berlin administrative court ruled that the eviction had been illegal, and a day later, police and construction workers withdrew to the cheers of sympathizers and residents.
On this summer afternoon, the street seems peaceful: parents go for walks with children, people sit on the sidewalk in front of the houses in the sun, others talk in front of the Späti.
In the immediate vicinity of the house projects are a primary school and kindergartens.
Left-wing violence is not the main concern of many residents: Kerstin Neugebauer, who has lived in the neighbourhood since 1999, and Jana*, who is raising three children here, are particularly annoyed by the police presence.
With the residents of the housing projects, they share the concern about rising rents and gentrification.
It doesn't sound like a neighborhood that mostly wanted police protection from vandalizing leftists.
The rift that the Berlin Senator of the Interior and the police are opening between squatters and their neighbors apparently does not exist.
Friedrichshain in East Berlin was actually a traditional working-class neighborhood that even today has a low average income and a high risk of poverty compared to the rest of the city.
Squatting and the housing projects born from them have also been part of the neighbourhood for a long time: in 1990, numerous houses in the former GDR were occupied, including almost the entire Mainzer Straße very close to the Riga area.
While the people of Mainz had been evicted under a large police presence in a veritable street battle, many of the projects in Riga were legalized and some are still inhabited today by the people who occupied them 26 years ago.
At the same time, the district has increasingly become a magnet for tourists and Berliners from all over the world in recent years: residents from GDR times and former squatters now share their neighborhood with them.
This is also noticeable in rents, which have risen by almost 60 percent since 2009 for new lettings.
Many of the new buildings in Riga are attacked as symbols of this development: they can be recognized by thrown in windows or freshly painted facades that were pelted with paint bags.
No other street was mentioned so often this year along with the words "left-wing autonomous violence".
One reason why not all neighbors see this as a problem could be that they are not necessarily affected by crime: according to statistics, crimes such as assault are almost exclusively directed against police officers.
Most of the crimes are property damage, which tends to affect new buildings and newly renovated houses.
For Kerstin Neugebauer, who has lived for 17 years in an apartment building next to the controversial 94, there can be no question of uncertainty.
As far as acts of violence are concerned, she is appeased: The people in the 94 are her neighbors, they certainly were not.
Even the famous burning cars have not existed directly in Riga for some time.
For the trained architect, her street is not a criminal focal point, on the contrary: "Here you help each other, live together on the street and get more from each other than anywhere else".
Neugebauer deliberately moved to Rigaer Straße - and stayed.
That's why it was so important to her that the residents get their street back: from the police, politics and the media, all of whom suddenly claimed sovereignty over the interpretation of the district in July.
But in the eyes of residents like Neugebauer, the street continues to be taken away from them: by faceless new buildings in former vacant lots, which displace the old residents.
"After all, these are condominiums that are not interesting for many people here - people who are not so well-heeled tend to live here," she says.
"I absolutely cannot approve of violence and destruction."
But what are you supposed to do if no one ever listens to you?
Frustration sets in on all sides, including the police and residents.
Kerstin Neugebauer has little understanding for newcomers who are annoyed by paint bombs: The house projects and the left-wing scene were part of the neighborhood.
Anyone who moves here should be aware of this - just like someone who moves to a pub district can complain badly about noise there.
All persons introduced only by their first names have asked not to be called by their real names
Urbach: Annika Deuschle is the new refugee commissioner
Annika Deuschle is the contact person for integration and organizer.
She is also a local social worker.
Since July, Annika Deuschle has been the refugee commissioner for Urbach.
The social pedagogue supports the administrative team around Achim Grockenberger.
She sees herself as a point of contact for all actors: refugees, the refugee aid working group, administration, authorities and anyone else involved.
Regine Kunde from the working group indicates that the volunteers are more than grateful that Deuschle is now here, the egg-laying wool milk sow, who has one problem above all.
This is what some had meant - less mocking than aiming at the multitude of desired areas of responsibility - when the administration wanted to advertise the position.
They were looking for an administrative specialist with a talent for languages and people, combined with many years of experience in the field of social work, just an egg-laying wool milk sow.
But administrative work is not her central area, says Annika Deuschle.
Above all, it is about organization, work with the people on site and also behind the scenes as well as networking.
The 31-year-old has been there for about six weeks.
She has limited a 50 percent position to three years.
"It was high time," says Regine Kunde, that Annika Deuschle supports honorary and full-time actors.
There are big and small problems, organizational, human and communication problems.
Soon there will be new containers in Wasenstraße
For some time now, it has been a serious problem to find housing for the follow-up refugees who have been recognised.
The municipalities are responsible for follow-up accommodation.
They must accommodate the refugees in their own or rented premises.
The costs of building, renting or renovating these accommodations must be borne by the municipalities themselves.
The responsibility changes from the district office to the municipality and job center.
Problem: There are free objects, but not every landlord wants to offer his apartment.
The search has been very difficult for some time.
De facto, the administration cannot find private housing.
It does not work so far, but one is dependent on private apartments, so Deuschle.
Therefore, municipal housing must be upgraded, as the saying goes.
So new containers will soon be set up in Wasenstraße.
But apartments alone are not enough.
Perspective is the keyword, Regine Kunde and Annika Deuschle agree.
In addition to a permanent home, there are internships, training places, school places, one-euro jobs and temporary jobs for refugees and migrants that have to be found or set up.
"More places would be good," reports Regine Kunde.
Many work in the building yard or help janitors, do charitable work - and that motivated and very neat, as Annika Deuschle reports.
She hopes that the work for the community will lead to a positive public image.
This is "not occupational therapy".
But activity does not only mean work.
The day needs a fixed structure, say Deuschle and customer.
People need to develop a sense of belonging.
So it needs offers such as sports, contacts with locals and, above all, language courses.
Professional courses are rare.
So the administration and volunteers also step in here.
It is crucial that the refugees get the feeling that they are wanted and welcome in Germany.
The long duration of the proceedings is a problem.
They have to explain to the refugees that it takes time and that they can bridge the time sensibly, for example with language courses.
Anyone who at some point develops the feeling that he cannot help anyone in Urbach, is not allowed to work and is useless, will never integrate.
The clear majority is motivated.
But there are also problem cases, says Kunde honestly, "people for whom nothing works". The work of Deuschle and Kunde is therefore always to motivate others.
All this is already a "mammoth task".
A difficult question: Are the two afraid of radicalization after the recent events, even in a small community like Urbach?
"No," says Regine Kunde quite clearly, "which some might call naïve." However, she could not and did not want to rule out a residual risk.
But the helpers are already sensitized.
These incidents are also an issue among the refugees.
They are afraid that the attackers will bring them completely into disrepute.
"They want to show that they have nothing to do with it," says Regine Kunde.
Many would like to stay in Urbach.
So full-time staff and volunteers have to look for activities locally and in the region.
They always have in the background that soon a new batch of refugees and migrants could come to Urbach.
Does Germany need an upper limit?
Politicians shy away from answering this question clearly.
Actually, it is unfair to put them to helpers on site.
"In Urbach, we have not yet arrived where we want to be," says Annika Deuschle.
No new refugees, that would ease the situation.
Regine Kunde also makes it clear that the Urbachers are already busy integrating the previous people sensibly.
There are currently around 100 people, mostly young men.
But when people are in need, you have to help them, both women agree.
The political world situation is so complicated, there are no easy answers.
Schorndorf: Burglars wanted with helicopter
The police helicopter flew over different areas for about an hour - unsuccessfully.
Two unknown men forcibly entered an apartment in an apartment building in Lindenweg on Friday morning at 8.50 a.m.
The resident surprised the two and put the fiends to flight.
The two men were about 1.65 to 1.70 meters tall, well masked, both wearing blue jeans and black hoodies.
They fled towards the city centre.
For the search, the police used several patrol crews and a police helicopter.
The search was unsuccessful.
It is possible that the strangers were noticed before the crime near the apartment or during their escape.
Baden-Wuerttemberg: Police investigate after rocker attack on snack bar
After an attack on an Ulm snack bar, the police are investigating six suspects from the rocker milieu for serious breach of the peace.
In the case of apartment searches, evidence and narcotics had been secured, police said on Friday.
Around 20 masked men of a rocker-like group had thrown bottles and stones against the window of a snack bar in July, according to police.
After that, they are said to have attacked two guests and slightly injured one.
Then they fled.
The snack bar and the adjacent building suffered damage of 10,000 euros.
According to the investigators, it is about a dispute in the Ulm rocker milieu between a Kurdish and a Turkish gang.
Thuringia: Zeiss Meditec comes closer to the billion in sales
High demand for medical technology in Asia boosted Carl Zeiss Meditec's sales.
In the first nine months of the fiscal year that began in October, Group sales rose by 6.7 percent to 798.6 million euros, as the listed company announced on Friday in Jena.
Business in Asia grew disproportionately by 17.1 percent.
According to the interim balance sheet, earnings before interest and taxes increased from 89.5 million euros to 110.5 million euros.
The Jena-based medical technology group wants to exceed the sales mark of one billion euros in this financial year, the Executive Board confirmed.
Zeiss Meditec manufactures devices and equipment for medical practices and clinics.
The company, which belongs to the optics and electronics group Carl Zeiss (Oberkochen), employs almost 3000 people.