Bela Sei Bela Video || Best Record

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads badly burned in a lawnmower explosion was discharged Friday after 264 days in the hospital, but not before his caregivers gathered to say farewell to one of their favorite patients. She Yan Chen, 61, of Oak Park Heights, was burned over more than 70 percent of his body last October when the gasoline he was using to fill a riding lawnmower inside his garage exploded. Doctors gave him a 20 percent chance of survival at the time. Chen underwent several skin grafts and 15 surgeries in all, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Friday (http://bit.ly/1IVWiL8 ). His pinky fingers were amputated. He nearly died in January after developing a perforated stomach ulcer and slipping into a coma a week later. Stepping from the elevator on his way back from physical therapy Thursday, he got a surprise greeting from more than 50 Regions Hospital employees, some carrying posters, balloons and streamers. "He is a miracle," nurse Sherry Schaefer said. "We don't do this for everybody, but he's been in here since October. He's a very sweet guy." Chen's recovery was complicated because so much of his body was burned, said David Ahrenholz, co-director of Regions Burn Center. "We used all of the unburned parts of his body (to harvest skin grafts), and there weren't that many — some patches on his thighs and some on his back — but it was very difficult," Ahrenholz said.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads Chen, who emigrated to the United States from China in 1993, thanked his doctors and nurses. "Everybody is so helpful and so concerned and cares," he said through an interpreter. "I feel so glad, so happy to see so many people. (But) I'm looking forward to going home. I miss my children." For now, Chen is working on improving his mobility. He was a chef at Mr. Chow Chinese Restaurant in Stillwater but likely will be unable to work again, daughter Shi Qin Chen said. "He can't sweat, so, more than likely, he's not going to be able to go into the kitchen for any long period of time," he said. Nurses Jody Rood and Michelle Foss said Chen impressed all of the nurses with his good cheer. "You'd walk by his room, and he'd always be smiling and waving," Foss said.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads Last Monday evening, 7.15pm. The southbound Dart train’s emergency brakes screech and scream for several deafening, terrifying seconds until it halts abruptly. Then silence. No crash. We’re still alive, is my first thought. Hundreds of homebound commuters on the packed train have had their routine disturbed. They look out the windows. “There’s a naked man on the tracks,” a woman says. People raise their iPhones to take pictures of the tanned body with the wizened face running past the window. Some laugh and joke. Most ignore him and go back to their digital devices and books for distraction. This is an annoyance, nothing more. Let’s hope it doesn’t last too long. The naked man disappears. For several minutes we don’t know what’s going on. Next the driver announces that there is a naked man lying on the tracks in front of the train, preventing us from moving. We have been stuck between Blackrock and Seapoint stations for 10 minutes. The naked man emerges again along the side of the train like a freakish sideshow. A female commuter comments that he must be enjoying the attention.If there is any security on the train, please come to the driver’s cabin,” comes the announcement. Burly men in black do not appear.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads Eventually the train begins to move again in slow fits and starts, then stops at Seapoint station. The doors open and remain open, giving access to the platform and giving the weary passengers much-needed fresh air. The naked man runs past the open doors. He is losing his novelty for the commuters, mostly workers, on a hot evening when they want to get home to enjoy the last of the good weather. As he runs back and forth, I catch his eye and see the fear in his face. He is terrified. A young woman in dark trousers and a pink jacket leaves the train to talk to him. He is very agitated. She tries to hold his attention. Her body language is confident but she is having difficulty keeping him from moving past her to jump on to the tracks again. The driver has given the naked man an orange hi-vis vest to wear. It barely covers what it’s meant to. It’s comical to some of the commuters and provides another photo opportunity.He latches on to my gaze and tells me his name. Let’s say it’s Joe. “Joe, why are you doing this?” “They’re after me. The train; it wants to kill me.” His language and his story are confused, as he speaks about enemies that only he can see. “No guards, no guards.” He tries to jump up on a metal bench and over the wall. He is bleeding. “What happened?” Joe says that he fell off a 30-foot wall on to the tracks and lost his clothes. “Lost them where? Were you sunbathing?” “Yeah,” he says, before insisting that he was not attempting to take his own life. When he tries to run again, the young woman grabs his arm in a professional manner. He doesn’t like this. He threatens to jump again. “Joe, are you on drugs?” I ask. “No. They’re after me. I don’t want the guards. The guards will kill me.” The young woman says calmly and with authority, “I’m sure you know some guards. They’ll take you to hospital. You’re bleeding. You need to be looked after.” The driver is standing firm on the other side of the young woman, the three of us corralling him. The driver tells me the naked man was lying on the tracks. He’s lucky to be alive, and the driver is shaken. His heart “won’t stop beating fast”, he tells me. The gardaí are taking ages to arrive. The young woman whispers, “I’m a garda, but he can’t know that.” The off-duty garda keeps trying to ring the nearest Garda stations, but they don’t answer. For 30 minutes there is no response from them. We hear sirens, but they’re not for us. The siren sounds agitate Joe further and he talks insensibly about the terrible things they are going to do to him. “I’m on my way to a party and now I’m late. Really late,” the young woman says. She has to go home and change, and then head back into town. I ask Joe where he lives, whether he has a family, and whether I can phone anyone for him. Like the off-duty garda, I stand close enough to him to keep him from running but not so close as to threaten him. I don’t let his gaze leave mine. He keeps looking to me for reassurance. “You’re going to be okay, Joe,” I say, wishing I could believe it. “When they come for me, will you come with me?” he asks me, like a child. He says he is 53. He looks older. Has a gold stud in his left ear. “Tell me about your tattoos.” The question seems to ground him a little. He looks over his body and shows off a tattoo on one arm with his daughter’s name, and a tattoo on his chest with an ex-girlfriend’s name. Joe seems utterly unselfconscious about standing almost naked on a train platform dressed only in an orange high-vis vest. “Have you been in hospital? Do you need to be back in hospital?” I ask. “Yes,” he says, to both. Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads “The gardaí will take you to hospital,” the young woman says. I tell him that I am a journalist and ask him to tell me his story. I ring the newsdesk at The Irish Times and give him my phone to speak to a reporter. Joe seems eased by this acknowledgement that his story is important. He tells his story and it calms him down. A tall, thin man emerges from the train and walks slowly towards Joe, as one might approach a scared wild animal. He says gently: “You know me, Joe. I know you. I’m a nurse.” He names the psychiatric hospitals where he has worked. I can see the hospital ID tag around his neck. “Look at all these people who want to go home. Why don’t you come for a walk with me, and let them go home,” the nurse says gently. “No,” says the off-duty garda. The naked man turns away from the nurse, who withdraws, and tries to climb on to a bench to jump over the wall. The off-duty garda grabs his arm to stop him. Joe becomes more agitated and wants to run along the tracks to Dún Laoghaire. He wants only to go home. A man, an insurance salesman, gets off the train and stands by the end of the platform so he can stop the man before he attempts to jump back on to the tracks. Finally, the gardaí arrive, walking confidently at a slow pace down the platform. The train doors start to beep. It starts up again as the gardaí approach Joe. They are much bigger than him, and he goes peacefully. The train doors start to beep indicating that it’s about to leave. I jump back on to the train, and a few seconds later the young garda just makes it through the doors .”I was terrified the train was going to leave before they got here and I was going to be alone with him. I’m late for my party,” she says again. “He really wanted to tell his story. I think it calmed him down,” I say. “I was going to kill you at first,” she says. “You’re a great social worker. That training in Templemore must be pretty good.” She smiles. We chat our way back to normalcy for a couple of stops. I disembark at my station and walk home. I’m unable to sleep wondering what has happened to Joe. There is a news report about the disrupted Dart services. But there is one disrupted life that I can’t forget. ***** Three days later, I am on my way to work when Joe gets on the Dart and sits beside me. He’s delighted to see me and is in much better form. He’s wearing a shiny green and orange Adidas tracksuit, and new fluorescent orange and green runners. “You’re looking well. Much better,” I say. I notice a few stares as I sit with him and he blurts out his story. He says he was trying to kill himself on Monday. This is the opposite of what he had said to me and the off-duty garda that evening. “Why?” “I was psychotic. It was the drugs. I thought the train was going to kill me. It wasn’t even a train. This voice in my head. Telling me that I had a choice. I could go out and attack a paedophile, or else kill myself.” “What was the drug?” It was snowblow, he says: the crack cocaine of the moment, and in many ways worse because you never know what’s in it, he explains. “I was going to kill anyone who touched me.” I remember the off-duty garda gripping his arm and how he reacted. How she didn’t touch him again. Joe says he knew she was a garda all along. Joe’s story flows out, more cogently than last time. He is homeless. He is living in an abandoned house in Dún Laoghaire. He can’t use hostels because he’s afraid to be in a room with other people: not for his own safety, but for theirs, he says. He tells me he has just got out of prison in the past few days. His brother died an hour after he got out. He couldn’t attend his brother’s funeral because he wasn’t able to go to the church. He can’t go anywhere near a church. His family has fractured, with his wife and daughter living with his brother, who is his daughter’s “stepfather”. He says that before Monday’s incident he had been clean of drugs for two years: “even methadone, and that’s the hardest to come off”. That was in prison. So having been detoxed, the snowblow hit him hard. “Where did the gardaí take you?” To the garda station, where they locked him up, he tells me. “I was alone and the demons were all around me I could see them dancing on the walls. I don’t know how long I was in there; it felt like days. I wanted to be sectioned [put in a locked ward in a psychiatric unit] but they wouldn’t listen. “Then I heard the bastard who gave me the snowblow in the next cell and that made it worse.” He says he is angry at the drug dealer for “playing a trick” on him with such a strong drug. When the gardaí let him go, he left the station. Later he went to the dlr LexIcon, the new library in Dún Laoghaire that cost €36.6 million, and sat on the steps. The man who sold him the drug came and sat beside him. Joe thinks this man should be “sliced up”; he suggests this has already happened but it wasn’t him who did it. “People think I did it but I didn’t.” He says there was a fight on Dún Laoghaire pier, where the dealer was attacked. It’s impossible to know whether to believe any of this. Joe says he was put into an industrial school at the age of 12. “I’ve been in prison ever since,” he says. He started heroin at 16 and has been in and out of prison for theft to pay for drugs. He mentions The General, Martin Cahill. He talks about the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse. Joe seems unaware of the other commuters eavesdropping on our conversation. He rants about paedophiles and “Brothers”. He says he was sexually abused and that the drugs were meant to kill the pain, but they didn’t. He says he sees the demons who abused him all day and all night, and can’t get them out of his head. The other commuters have kept their faces turned, and ignore Joe and I as we disembark at Tara Street station. Joe says he feels that his life was destroyed in childhood, and that the decades since have been about killing the pain. As we go down the stairs, there are several security people waiting at the gates and scanning the passengers getting off the trains. Joe puts his ticket in the machine. It doesn’t work, so he goes through the security point and is passed through. We shake hands. He thanks me for listening to his story. “Please write it. I want everyone to know. I want my brother to know. There’s a book in me.” Joe heads off to get his social welfare payment. After that he plans to go to Merchants’ Quay Ireland homeless and drugs service, where he will get food. “Will you do drugs today?” No, he answers, limping severely. It looks as if he was injured in the fall and hasn’t been treated. “See you, and thank you,” he says, as he is absorbed into city homelessness and I head to work in my shiny office. I expect I shall meet him again on the Dart some day.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads THE BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL IN the photo above is a Beaded Lacewing. While the adults are delicate and lovely, they begin life as ferocious tiny predators lurking in the nests of termites. These larvae live unmolested in their nest, silently striking down termites from behind—and for one species, with their behind. When a baby Lomamyia latipennis gets hungry, it stuns a termite with a “vapor-phase toxicant” released from its anus. That’s a fancy way of saying it farts on it. In fact, their farts are powerful enough to immobilize six termites with one blow. This is how you wield a Death Fart, if you are a small predatory neuropteran: “A larva repeatedly approached and retreated until the tip of its abdomen was directed at the termite’s head. The apex of the abdomen was lifted and waved past the termite’s face, without contact. The termite… was not repelled, as it made no obvious effort to escape. One to three minutes later it was incapacitated, lying supine, with its legs moving irregularly.” Once the larva delivers its toxic toot, it can leisurely scuttle over and chow down. If a few extra termites are caught in the backdraft, that’s just extra food. In laboratory tests, experimenters determined the fecal fume-induced paralysis lasted for three hours, and if not eaten, the termites eventually died. Even more astonishing is that early stage L. latipennis are tiny, about 0.07 mg in size. The average size of their termite prey was 2.5mg. That is some seriously potent flatulence. The experimenters coaxed the larvae into farting on other insects commonly found in termite nests—fruit flies, two kinds of small wasp, and book lice—but they were unaffected. The spectacular sphincter specificity of the species seemed only affected by size; very large termites (>5mg) were slightly stunned. How Do You Weaponize a Fart? Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads Beaded lacewings have been described as “unaccountably neglected… Generally speaking, very little is known about Berothidae at present.” There aren’t any good photos of this species, other than some older black and white blurry photos. Unfortunately, just what chemicals create air biscuit asphyxiation were never identified by the researchers in the original study. There is a fairly deep literature on insect farting; a survey of more then 110 species found many of them were significant methane producers, especially roaches and termites. That’s mostly a consequence of a high-fiber diet and a lot of gut bacterial symbionts. But it’s unlikely that beaded lacewings are ripping enough methane to knock out a termite—it must be something else unique to the species. And their gassy butts aren’t the only thing strange about L. latipennis. The first and third instar larvae are highly mobile and carnivorous. But in between, there is a strange stage that doesn’t move and is non-feeding. Why? We have no idea. Indeed, this whole group of insects (Neuroptera) has something just not right going on with their colons. A constriction between their stomach and hind-gut prevents immature stages from pooping. They work around this problem by acting more like spiders than insects. Their pointy, straw-like mouthparts inject digestive enzymes into the bodies of their victims. Once the innards of their prey are liquified, they slurp it up. Any solid matter that happens to be ingested is retained until they turn into their adult form and can finally take a giant dump. Tooting Their Own Horn—Or a Bum Rap? To date, no one has been able to repeat the original experiments, so it’s possible that this is just a vapor trail. We don’t know what makes a death fart; maybe nothing. All insects have weird and wonderful chemical secretions; perhaps the original experimenters missed something. In the words of neuropteran expert Professor John Oswald: “the gaseous allomone story in larval berothids still requires further investigation and confirmation.” Several kinds of lacewing relatives have anal attack plans. The species Chrysoperla comanche exudes a droplet from its anal glands and waves it around threateningly if disturbed. They are master contortionists, raising their abdomen over their heads to anoint the head of an annoying ant. It seems to act like chewing gum; it’s incredibly sticky and ants work frantically to clean it off. (I’m not sure why the experimenters thought to test this, but the larva can still perform this yoga move after decapitation. It’s a reflex to being prodded in the side.) Unfortunately, no one has identified the chemical component for this species either, but whatever the stuff is, they have a lot of it up their butt. In lab tests, larvae were able to defend themselves from an average of eight ants before they began to run out. It’s the same adhesive that they use to cement themselves to a leaf when they change from a larva into a pupa. In this case, the insects found a new use for a previously existing substance. Adults of the common green lacewing produces a compound called skatole, which smells just as bad as the name sounds. In Sweden, adults have the nickname Stinkslända [stink-fly]. Maybe all around us farts are causing death and destruction on a tiny, tiny scale. We just don’t know. Specifically, Sphincters I’ve focused on the scatological part of this story, because seriously, we all have that one officemate that seems to exist on falafel and bean burritos. But beyond that, it’s a fascinating example of just how little we know about the natural world around us. This investigation into insect farting came about because some biologists were curious. Not because they thought they would find an important compound to control termites; but because they thought this was a nifty little animal and wanted to learn more. astounding! The cover of Astounding Stories, June 1932, clearly foreshadowing the Ass-Yodel method of termite control. Astounding Stories, H. W. Wessolowski, artist.Click to Open Overlay Gallery Insects make up nearly 80 percent of described animal species so far, but an estimated 60 percent of insect species are undescribed. We don’t know much about them other than a few specimens. Entomology is fairly friendly to interested amateurs; the natural history of many of our insects were worked out by people who were observant and kept careful records. Perhaps someone will be inspired to start recording and collecting these little predators. An enormous unknown world awaits you at your feet. And if you ever happen to be attacked by giant termites like these fellows, now you have a new weapon to try.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads The Queen is set to no longer receive funding via Scotland’s crown estate, a decision that means that the income of the monarch and the rest of the royal family could reduce by more than £2m a year. It is understood that the Scottish parliament intends to retain the profits from the crown estate in Scotland for use in Scotland, which could have the consequence of reducing the sovereign grant, which funds the monarchy. Buckingham Palace intends to raise the consequences for the Queen with David Cameron and George Osborne. It had been understood that Scotland would still agree to contribute to the Queen’s costs after taking over management of the crown estate assets north of the border, worth £26m, but it appears that under Nicola Sturgeon this will not occur. “Originally, Alex Salmond did imply that might happen. But the new leadership said no,” one senior aide said. The sovereign grant – which this year was £39.9m – funds the royal household. It is calculated on a formula that sees the Queen handed 15% of the annual surplus of the crown estate, one of the largest property owners in the UK. This year, revenue from the crown estate in Scotland stood at £14.5m, which represents a £2.2m contribution to the sovereign grant. Palace officials raised the issue as they presented the Queen’s annual accounts. Sir Alan Reid, keeper of the privy purse, said the Scottish plans created a complication over future funding. “The transfer of the Scottish assets of the crown estate to the Scottish government does confuse the issue of renegotiating the percentage in due course because the total assets under the crown estate management will fall, and therefore 15% will be less than it would be if the transfer of the Scottish assets had taken place,” he said. Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads Under Alex Salmond, the SNP last year pledged that Scotland would retain the Queen as head of state, if the country had voted for independence from the rest of the UK last September. But the monarch faced criticism in Scotland after she was asked to make a rare public intervention in the final days of the Scottish independence referendum, speaking publicly to a well-wisher outside church near Balmoral saying: “I hope people will think very carefully about the future.” Buckingham Palace stressed that the funding issue would not affect the royal family’s relationship with Scotland. The Queen will “continue to go to Balmoral, and to Holyrood, and she’ll continue to be Queen of Scotland”, said one source. There appears to be no other mechanism in place for Scotland to contribute to the monarchy. Scottish ministers are thought to be considering transferring the management of the crown estate assets in Scotland on to the local authorities, with the intention of using the surplus for more social purposes. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said it was wrong to infer that Scotland would no longer contribute to the monarchy based on the change to the operation of the crown estate and its impact on the grant received by the Queen. The spokesman said it was an “entirely hypothetical” situation, and that though the sovereign grant was calculated on a percentage of the crown estate income, “there is a formulaic connection between the two, but there is no financial connection between the two”. Scots would effectively still contribute to the costs of the monarchy because they pay taxes to the Treasury, which in turn supplies the money for the sovereign grant, he said. A Scottish government spokeswoman added: “Scotland will continue to make the same financial contribution to the monarchy as at present – there will be no reduction in the sovereign grant as a result of devolution of the crown estate.” The Scottish government said that the level of funding the Queen receives from the Treasury under the sovereign grant is set by reference to 15% of the crown estate’s profits and does not come directly from crown estate profits themselves. With most taxes paid in Scotland continuing to be controlled by the Treasury, Scotland will continue to make the same contribution to the monarchy through general taxation. The sovereign grant – which apart from security costs represents the main public funding of the monarchy – was introduced in 2011 to replace the annual civil list and property and travel grants. It is based on 15% of crown estate profits from two years previously, but its amount cannot drop below the previous year and the exact percentage is renegotiated every five years. It is due for review from April 2016. The crown estate income was surrendered to the Treasury in return for an annual civil list by George III. Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads The Queen’s accounts show a 6.7% increase in funding last year to £37.9m, of which she spent £35.7m, setting the rest aside in a reserve account. Defending the increase, at a time of austerity, aides said money had to be found for major repairs on property, including at Buckingham Palace. As part of a 10-year plan, aides have looked at re-servicing Buckingham Palace, with an initial estimate of £150m to bring it up to date. One option would involve the Queen and royal household moving out for the duration of repairs. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall notched up the largest travel bill – a £446,159 tour of Mexico and Colombia, a £239,710 tour of the United States and Charles’s visit to the Middle East, which cost £262,212 – all of them using charter flights. Royal travel costs rose to £5.1m, up 21% on 2013-4. The Duke of York spent £62,856 on a charter flight to Kuwait and £43,343 on a charter to Saudi Arabia. Prince Harry’s tour of Brazil and Chile cost £43,872 on scheduled flights and £41,754 on charter flights. Prince Charles saw his income from the Duchy of Cornwall rise by 1.7% to £19.8m. His tax bill, after the deduction of business expenditure, was £4.5m. Presenting the accounts, which will be laid before parliament, Reid said: “The Queen, the royal family and the household continue to provide excellent value for money: at 56p per person annually.” He added: “Over the coming years, the maintenance of the estate and in particular Buckingham Palace will present a significant financial challenge. We will continue to work closely with the royal trustees to ensure that the funding for the royal household reflects that challenge.” The headline on this story was updated on 24 June 2015 to make it clear that the Scottish government had not taken a decision to stop funding the Queen. Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads Tens of thousands of malaria cases went untreated in Guinea last year as people with symptoms shunned health clinics for fear of being sent into isolation at Ebola treatment centres, according to authoritative research. A major paper from infectious diseases experts said 74,000 fewer people were diagnosed and offered malaria treatment than would have been expected. The research was based on a survey of public health facilities in December 2014 and interviews with healthcare workers. The paper says far more people will have died from malaria in 2014 than Ebola, which had killed 2,444 people by 15 June of this year. Urgent action was required to get malaria treatment to those who needed it, say the paper’s authors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and the President’s Malaria Initiative in the Lancet’s Infectious Diseases journal. “The two major avenues for delivering life-saving medicine to patients with malaria – public health facilities and community health workers – have been substantially compromised by the Ebola virus-disease epidemic,” they write. “Efforts to reinforce malaria care delivery in Guinea should be focused on reconnecting healthcare workers and health facilities with the communities they serve and whose trust they need to regain.” In the areas of Guinea hit worst by Ebola, the numbers of people seeking treatment at outpatient clinics dropped by up to 42% and the numbers seeking care for suspected malaria were down by 69%, according to the first systematic survey from one of the three countries affected by the epidemic. Fewer oral malaria drugs were given (down 24%) and fewer injectables (down 30%) than the previous year. In districts affected by Ebola the numbers of community health workers actively working also dropped from 98% before Ebola to 74%, while those treating malaria dropped to less than half (48%). Advertisement “One problem is that the early symptoms of malaria (fever, headache, and body aches) mimic those of Ebola virus disease,” said the lead author, Dr Mateusz Plucinski. “Malaria is one of the main causes of fever and health facilities visits in Guinea, but our data suggest that since the start of the Ebola epidemic people with fevers have avoided clinics for fear of contracting Ebola or being sent to an Ebola treatment centre.”Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads But, he added, untreated malaria cases will have led to more malaria in the villages and increased the numbers eventually arriving at clinics with fever who could be suffering from either malaria or Ebola. “This puts extra pressure on an already overburdened health system owing to a greater number of suspected Ebola cases requiring triage and isolation at treatment centres. Malaria control efforts and care delivery must be kept on track during an Ebola epidemic so that progress made in malaria control is not jeopardised and Ebola outbreak response is not impeded,” he said. New guidelines from the World Health Organisation recommend giving malaria drugs to everyone with a fever during an Ebola outbreak and handing out drugs that families can take to stave off a bout of the disease. Dr Franco Pagnoni, of the WHO, says in a comment piece in the journal that while this will help, it is important to return to business as usual. “To restore the credibility of health service delivery in the population, it is important that Ebola-virus-disease-specific activities in the communities, such as contract tracing and safe burials, are accompanied by the delivery of standard health services, such as distribution of long-lasting impregnated nets, vaccination, or community case management of child diseases with specific no-touch approaches appropriate to the context of the epidemic,” he writes.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed in a phone call with his French counterpart Francois Hollande on Wednesday Washington's commitment to end spying practices deemed "unacceptable" by its allies. The presidents' conversation, announced by Hollande's office, came after transparency lobby group WikiLeaks revealed on Tuesday that U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on the last three French presidents. The latest revelations of espionage among Western allies came after it emerged that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on Germany and that ''Germany's own'' BND intelligence agency had cooperated with the NSA to spy on officials and companies elsewhere in Europe. "President Obama reiterated unequivocally his firm commitment ... to end the practices that may have happened in the past and that are considered unacceptable among allies," the French president's office said. Hollande had earlier held an emergency meeting of his ministers and army commanders and the U.S. ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry. "France will not tolerate actions that threaten its security and the protection of its interests," an earlier statement from the president's office said, adding it was not the first time allegations of U.S. spying on French interests had surfaced. A senior French intelligence official will travel to the United States to discuss the matter and strengthen cooperation between the two countries,'' Hollande's office said.''Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads "We have to verify that this spying has finished," Stephane Le Foll, government spokesman, told reporters, adding that ministers had been told to be careful when speaking on their mobile phones. RELATED COVERAGE › U.S. not spying on France's Hollande or French officials: Kerry While Paris and Washington have good ties in general, U.N. Security Council veto-holder France fiercely maintains its independence on foreign policy and over the last two years there have been moments of friction and irritation on both sides. Hollande was disappointed by Obama's last-minute decision not to strike Syrian government positions in 2013. U.S. officials have frequently, in private, criticized France's tough stance in talks over Iran's nuclear program. MORE DOCUMENTS TO COME The revelations were first reported by French daily Liberation and on news website Mediapart, which said the NSA spied on presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande during the period of at least 2006 until May 2012. According to the documents, Sarkozy considered restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without U.S. involvement and Hollande feared a Greek euro zone exit back in 2012. Wikileaks said it would soon publish more details on the nature of U.S. spying on France. Le Foll said Paris had not decided whether to launch legal proceedings as Germany had done but, amid calls from some quarters for retaliation, played down diplomatic consequences. RELATED COVERAGE › France passes law to widen eavesdropping powers › U.S., European authorities investigate possible new leaker: sources "In the face of threats that we face and given the historic ties linking us, we have to keep a perspective," he said. "We're not going to break diplomatic ties." Germany's top public prosecutor closed a year-long probe earlier this month into the suspected tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone by U.S. spies. Claude Gueant, Sarkozy's former chief of staff and one of the reported targets of the NSA, told RTL radio: "I feel like trust has been broken." The documents, which included the cell phone of one of the presidents, included summaries of conversations between French officials on the global financial crisis, the future of the European Union, ties between Hollande's administration and Merkel's government.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads CHARLOTTE—AAA Carolinas is making another big push to educate the public on the dangers of distracted driving. They launched a new campaign Wednesday, which features the cautionary story of a Charlotte teenager taken too soon, because he didn't put down the phone. Mourning the loss of her son for the better part of a decade, Tammy Garlock says she still struggles with the question: ‘Why?’ "I cannot tell you as a parent how difficult it is to know that your child lost their life over the simple press of a button," said Garlock. Brian Garlock, 17, was driving home from his summer job in Pineville June 12, 2008 when he was hit and killed by two pick-up trucks. Nine days after his sudden and tragic death, his mother said she discovered what caused the crash, buried in the wreckage that was her son's car. "I took his cell phone, plugged it in and later determined it was a contributing factor in his accident. As he attempted to turn left out of the neighborhood he had been working in that day, he also decided to make a phone call," she said. Her son's story is featured in a new campaign by AAA-Carolinas to put a stop to distracted driving called: "Life has no redial, stay off the phone". A special PSA will hit airwaves soon along with signage on delivery trucks and gas pumps throughout the Carolinas.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads "This comes as we're in the middle of the ‘100 deadliest days for teens.’ That's the time from Memorial Day through Labor Day where we see teen fatalities historically climb," said Tiffany Wright with AAA Carolinas. The Garlock family is also working with lawmakers to pass a hands-free law in North Carolina. That would make holding your cell phone while behind the wheel illegal.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads SEATTLE Yordano Ventura will make a rehabilitation start on Friday for Class AAA Omaha as he returns to action after missing time due to irritation in his ulnar nerve in his right elbow. Ventura will throw a five-inning stint that should last about 75 pitches, manager Ned Yost said. “We’ll see how he does, how he gets through it,” Yost said before the Royals finished their series with the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night at Safeco Field. Yost has mapped out his rotation until July 5, which is when Ventura could pitch again in the majors. The team has received two useful outings from veteran Joe Blanton in Ventura’s absence. Blanton tossed six innings of one-run ball Monday against the Mariners. In his last outing, on June 12, Ventura experienced numbness in three fingers on his right hand. The loss of sensation stemmed from a buildup of fluid pressing against the nerve. The Royals do not view the condition as particularly serious, but they will be cautious with Ventura (3-6, 4.68 ERA), who has regressed in his second big-league season. Ventura has made 12 starts this season. He has left three of them early with injuries, and he was ejected once. He has given up at least four runs in six of those outings. Ventura threw a bullpen session Wednesday, as did left-handed starter Jason Vargas. Wednesday marked the first throwing session off a mound for Vargas since he experienced soreness in his left forearm during a bullpen on June 10.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads Vargas also is getting closer to a return, though the team is reluctant to set a date for that. Yost said he did not believe Vargas will require a rehabilitation start. “Probably not,” Yost said. “We’ll just have to wait and see where we are when we get there.” The Royals’ starting rotation remains in flux as the trade deadline approaches. The Royals are expected to inquire on pitchers on the trading block, such as Cincinnati Redsa starters Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake, Oakland Athletics starter Scott Kazmir and perhaps even Philadelphia Phillies ace Cole Hamels. But it is unclear whether the Royals will feel compelled to pull the trigger on a deal, perhaps because they possess internal upgrades. The team would like clarity on the readiness of Vargas, Ventura and even Danny Duffy — who returned to action Wednesday night after a monthlong because of shoulder irritation — before fully engaging in external replacements. The Royals also are keeping tabs on right-hander Kris Medlen as he recovers from his second Tommy John surgery. Medlen made his second rehab start for Class AA Northwest Arkansas on Wednesday night. He gave up six runs on six hits in four innings against the Arkansas Travelers. One of those runs was unearned. The Royals hope Medlen can contribute at some point soon after the All-Star break. They also hope that by then they will have a better sense of how Duffy, Ventura and Vargas might fare down the stretch. Ventura faces a test Friday as he pitches for the Omaha Storm Chasers.Click & Close Ads
Click & Close Ads

                          ------------- -------------

Click & Close Ads Click & Close Ads BRIDGETON – Patrolling his school's hallways to ensure safety is an important task to West Avenue School fourth-grader Brycen Moran. The 10-year-old recently won third place in AAA South Jersey's Safety of the Year honors program, which seeks to commend students for their leadership skills. "It feels really good to win this award," Moran said. "I was very surprised, and I like making my family and school proud." Moran served as lieutenant for West Avenue School's safety patrol division, routinely scanning the hallways each morning during breakfast and every afternoon during dismissal, according to West Avenue Guidance Counselor Thomas Herman. During breakfast, Moran would walk around the cafeteria to make sure younger students stayed seated. At dismissal, he would patrol the hallways to keep students from running to the bus, Herman said. According to AAA South Jersey Spokesman Rich Bradley, Moran was one of the youngest honorees to ever win the award in the South Jersey region.Click & Close Ads Click & Close Ads "I am extremely proud of Brycen for winning this award and being the youngest safety patrol member to do so," Herman said. "I nominated Brycen for this award because he is a positive role model to other students, treats everyone with respect and always wears his badge proud. I cannot think of a more deserving recipient." On June 12, Moran was surprised in front of his fellow classmates with an award presented by AAA South Jersey representatives. For his efforts, Moran received a personalized plaque, two tickets to Six Flags, two tickets to Sahara Sams and two tickets to Diggerland. Moran was one of three South Jersey students to win a AAA South Jersey safety award this year. Camden County sixth-grader Steven Riera, who is captain of the safety patrol at LEAP Academy Charter School in Camden, won the top honor — Outstanding School Safety Patroller of the Year. Second prize was awarded to Jenna Babroff, a fifth grader at Horace Mann Elementary School in Cherry Hill.Click & Close Ads Click & Close Ads The students are recommended for the award based on their leadership, dependability, academic strength, promptness and industriousness, Bradley said. AAA School Safety Patrols play an important role in ensuring the safety of thousands of school children daily throughout the AAA South Jersey region, Bradley said. About 600,000 children throughout the country participate in the program, according to Bradley. Many famous Americans have held the position of AAA School Safety Patrol, Bradley noted, including former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, five current and former Supreme Court Justices, five Olympic Gold Medalists and 21 astronauts