Women in Saree
Classy, Sexy, Simple – Saree is an quintessentially indian female attire, which oozes elegance. Some feel it multiplies the sexual quotient of women who don it.
Walmart gets the jump on Black Friday with November 1 holiday sale
Today may be Halloween, but Christmas is tomorrow.
Well, Christmas and holiday shopping, anyway.
In the past few years, we've seen that Black Friday deals are no longer exclusive to the day after Thanksgiving, and 2015 seems on track to continue that trend in a big way. Many retailers will be offering sales the entire months of November and December. We here at CNET will be tracking the deals and bringing you the best ones.
Of note this weekend is Walmart. The world's biggest retailer will kick off its holiday deals tomorrow -- Sunday, November 1 -- and run them for the next eight weeks straight.
The biggest deal Walmart is touting ahead of time is the entry-level Apple iPad Mini 2 with 16GB of storage for $199 -- a savings of $70. That's a pretty great deal for a tablet that's still well worth buying, and half the price of the new iPad Mini.
The company is also highlighting two online-only deals: a 48-inch RCA LED Smart HDTV for $300 (down from $320) and a Straight Talk Samsung Galaxy S3 for $99 (down from $179). Both of those seem less compelling, however. The phone in particular is a 2012 model that's outdated and likely won't get the latest software updates, which could leave you more vulnerable to malware. You're better off picking up a new Moto G for $179, or waiting for a deal on a better device to popup.
Yahoo News
New Cryptocurrency Replacing the U.S. Dollar?
America’s elite aren’t just experts at making money – they’re experts at protecting money. When the stock market goes down, they know to move to gold, when gold goes down they know to move to the dollar.
But what happens when EVERYTHING goes down?
Well, for the first time in history, there are digital alternatives. Including a cryptocurrency that isn’t just an investment, but a real way to purchase top quality goods and services.
Already, multi-millionaire comedian Jerry Seinfeld uses it when he travels. George Clooney plays characters who use it AND uses it himself when he gets off set.
It’s not just elite people either. This “point-based” cryptocurrency is also a common feature of elite companies. Airlines, High limit credit cards and exclusive resorts all use it.
But here’s the best part – our analysts have found a way YOU can invest in it. You don’t have to be a millionaire or have any special access.
In fact, we predict returns of over $56,000 in the next 9 months.
Yahoo News
Carrie Fisher warned Daisy Ridley not to wear gold bikini in 'Star Wars'
Carrie Fisher doesn't want actress Daisy Ridley making the same mistakes that she made when taking on the role of Princess Leia in the acclaimed "Star Wars" films.
Ridley, who plays Rey in "Star Wars: Episode VII -- The Force Awakens," chatted with Fisher for Interview magazine, and when she asked the 59-year-old actress what she thought of her sex symbol status, Fisher seemed offended.
"Listen! I am not a sex symbol, so that's an opinion of someone," she told the 23-year-old. "I don't share that."
Fisher then slammed her "Star Wars" outfit, presumably the gold bikini she wore in "Return of the Jedi" her character is enslaved by Jabba the Hut. "You should fight for your outfit," Fisher advised. "Don't be a slave like I was."
"All right, I'll fight," Ridley responded.
"You keep fighting against that slave outfit," Fisher further insisted.
One thing the actress did support was the inevitable romance in the movies. "I’m looking forward to your space kiss," Fisher told Ridley. “You’re going to have to have one. Every girl does.”
The young actress responded, "We'll wait and see."
Just last week, the first full trailer for "The Force Awakens" was released and the fans went crazy.
Fox News
Russian jet crashes in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people
A Russian passenger plane carrying more than 220 people crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula soon after taking off early Saturday from a Red Sea resort popular with Russian tourists and disappearing from radar screens, killing all on board, officials said.
The Airbus A-321 took off from Sharm el-Sheikh shortly before 6 a.m. with 217 passengers and seven crew members en route to St. Petersburg, Russia, and had been in the air for only 23 minutes when it crashed.
Ayman al-Muqadem, an Egyptian official with the government's Aviation Incidents Committee, said air controllers lost contact with the plane’s pilot after he radioed that the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and that he needed to make an emergency landing.
The jet then dropped off radar screens.
A ministry statement said Egyptian military search and rescue teams found the wreckage of the passenger jet in the remote mountainous Hassana area 44 miles south of el-Arish, an area in northern Sinai where Egyptian security forces are fighting a burgeoning Islamic militant insurgency led by a local affiliate of the Islamic extremist group ISIS.
A branch of ISIS claimed responsibility for downing the plane in a statement on Twitter, Sky News reported, adding that the claim had not been verified and it was unclear whether Sinai militants have the capability to attack a plane flying at a high altitude.
Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov scoffed at the ISIS claim, telling the Interfax news agency that such reports “must not be considered reliable.”
Nevertheless, French airline Air France and German air carrier Lufthansa said they would avoid flying over the Sinai Peninsula for safety reasons.
A spokeswoman for Lufthansa told The Associated Press that the company had decided in a meeting Saturday that the carrier would not fly over Sinai as long as the cause for the crash “has not been clarified.”
As many as 50 ambulances were dispatched to the crash site. The bodies of 150 victims, some still strapped to their seats, had been pulled from the wreckage, Sky News reported.
Egyptian officials said they won’t know what caused the crash until they examine the aircraft's flight's recorders, or "black boxes" which were recovered.
The wife of the co-pilot of the plane that crashed said late Saturday her husband had complained about the plane's condition, according to a Russian TV channel.
In an interview with state-controlled NTV, Natalya Trukhacheva, identified as the wife of co-pilot Sergei Trukachev, said her daughter "called him up before he flew out. He complained before the flight that the technical condition of the aircraft left much to be desired."
Russian airline Kogalymavia operated the plane branded as Metrojet.
The Egyptian officials said the aircraft was cruising at 36,000 feet when contact with the jet was lost. Flight-tracking service FlightRadar24 said the plane was losing altitude at about 6,000 feet per minute before the signal was lost, Reuters reported.
Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt's civilian airports, said except for three Ukrainian passengers all on board were Russian citizens.
An Egyptian cabinet statement said the 217 passengers included 138 women, 62 men and 17 children, ranging in age from 2 to 17.
A security officer at the crash site who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity described it as “tragic.”
“A lot of dead on the ground and many who died (were) strapped to their seats," the officer said. "The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock.”
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail flew to the crash site with several cabinet ministers on a private jet, Egypt’s tourism ministry said, according to Reuters.
Mahgoub said the aircraft had successfully undergone technical checks while at Sharm el-Sheikh's airport. A technical committee from the company was headed to Sharm el-Sheikh to collect security camera footage of the plane while it sat at the airport, including operations to supply it with fuel and passenger meals as well security checks, he said.
Airbus said the aircraft was 18 years old and had been operated by Metrojet since 2012, Reuters reported. The plane had accumulated around 56,000 flight hours in nearly 21,000 flights.
Moscow-based Metrojet said the A321 underwent required factory maintenance in 2014 and was in good condition. The airliner said plane’s captain Valery Nemov had 12,000 air hours of experience, including 3,860 in A321s.
Russian media said the airliner was operating a charter flight under contract with the Brisco tour company in St. Petersburg.
Separately, Russia's top investigative body opened its own investigation into the crash.
Militants in northern Sinai have not to date shot down commercial airliners or fighter-jets. There have been persistent media reports that they have acquired Russian shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles. But these types of missiles can only be effective against low-flying aircraft or helicopters. In January 2014, Sinai-based militants claimed to have shot down a military helicopter; Egyptian officials at the time acknowledged the helicopter had crashed, but gave no reason.
Russian television showed scenes of relatives and friends gathering at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Nov. 1 a national day of mourning, according to a statement posted on the Kremlin's website.
Two of the passengers on the Metrojet flight, Elena Rodina and Alexqander Krotov, were newlyweds, a friend of the couple told the Associated Press at a hotel near the airport. They were both 33.
Yulia Zaitseva said Rodina “really wanted to go to Egypt, though I told her ‘why the hell do you want to go to Egypt?’”
“We were friends for 20 years,” she said. “She was a very good friend who was ready to give everything to other people. To lose such a friend is like having your hand cut off.”
She said Rodina's parents feel “like their lives are over.”
Roughly three million Russian tourists, or nearly a third of all visitors in 2014, come to Egypt every year, mostly to Red Sea resorts in Sinai or in mainland Egypt.
Fox News
Sinai plane crash: Egypt dismisses IS claim
An investigation is under way after a Russian airliner crashed in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.
Egypt's prime minister said a technical fault was the most likely cause, dismissing claims from Islamic State militants that they were responsible.
However, three airlines - Emirates, Air France and Lufthansa - have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until more information is available.
The plane's black boxes have been found and sent for analysis, officials said.
The Kogalymavia Airbus A-321 came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight, contradicting earlier reports that the pilot had asked to make an emergency landing.
An Egyptian official had previously said that before the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers, the pilot had said the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and he intended to try to land at the nearest airport.
In Russia, the wife of the plane's co-pilot said her husband had complained about the plane's condition.
Natalya Trukhacheva told state-controlled NTV that their daughter had called the Sergei Trukachev before the flight left Sharm el-Sheikh.
"He complained before the flight that the technical condition of the aircraft left much to be desired," she said.
Russian and French investigators have joined the Egyptian-led probe, along with experts from Airbus, which is headquartered in France.
A criminal case had been opened against Kogalymavia for "violation of rules of flight and preparation for them", Russia's Ria news agency reported.
Police have searched the company's offices.
Kogalymavia spokeswoman Oksana Golovin insisted the 18-year-old plane was "fully, 100% airworthy" and added that the pilot had 12,000 hours of flying experience.
IS claims dismissed
In Sinai itself, where jihadist groups are active, militants allied to IS made a claim on social media that they brought down flight KGL9268.
But Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail dismissed the claim, saying experts had confirmed that a plane could not be downed at the altitude the Airbus 321 was flying at.
Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told Interfax news agency that "such reports cannot be considered true". No evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, he said.
Egypt's civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,450m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.
Security experts say a plane flying at that altitude would be beyond the range of a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (Manpad), which Sinai militants are known to possess.
However, German carrier Lufthansa said it would avoid flying over the Sinai peninsula "as long as the cause for today's crash has not been clarified". On Saturday evening, Air France-KLM and Emirates said they were following suit.
British Airways and easyJet said their routes were regularly reviewed, but that they had no plans to alter their routes to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.
A hotel near St Petersburg airport has become a gathering point for relatives of those on flight 9268. There are medics here to help them, and we saw an Orthodox priest. Some have been giving DNA samples, to try to identify their loved ones.
In the lobby, men from the investigative committee are huddled over files and phones - beside cabinets full of souvenirs. For some reason, riot police are patrolling the corridors too.
Occasionally, someone emerges red-eyed from the room where officials are passing on what information and answers they can to relatives. But it's still impossible to say why this happened.
A spokeswoman for the airline says the pilot was experienced, the Airbus plane had been through all its safety checks. But there are a lot of people here with urgent questions about why their friends and relatives are not safely home tonight after a holiday in the Egyptian sun.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning for what is the worst air disaster in Russian history.
The plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children, Russian transport authorities said. There were seven crew members on board.
Egyptian officials had said 213 of the passengers were Russian and four were Ukrainian, but Russian officials said at least one of the victims was from Belarus.
The office of Egypt's prime minister said 129 bodies had so far been recovered and taken to Cairo.
The first bodies to be returned to Russia are expected to be flown to St Petersburg on Sunday.
One unnamed official described a "tragic scene" with bodies of victims still strapped to seats.
The plane appeared to have split in two, he told Reuters, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.
BBC News
Work starts on UK's first permanent Middle East base since 1971
Work has begun to construct Britain's first new permanent military base in the Middle East since 1971.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and naval personnel attended a ceremony to mark the start of construction of HMS Juffair at Mina Salman Port in Bahrain.
The establishment is being developed to support Royal Navy deployments in the Gulf through the creation of a permanent and improved base.
Mr Hammond said it showed the UK's commitment to the region.
Mr Hammond said: "The presence of the Royal Navy in Bahrain is guaranteed into the future, ensuring Britain's sustained presence east of Suez.
"The new facility will enable Britain to work with our allies to reinforce stability in the Gulf and beyond."
Bahrain has been criticised over allegations of serious human rights abuses, but Mr Hammond said the UK was helping the Persian Gulf State to change.
He said: "Bahrain is not perfect by any means, but it at least knows what it has to do and it is taking steps to do it.
In some cases, he said, the state's authorities were "seeking our support to help them reform., for example, their police force, their judicial system, their prison service... to gradually improve the standards and bring it closer to what we would expect to see."
The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said the UK's growing military commitment to the Gulf was "likely to remain controversial".
Its opponents and backers would expect to expect to see "tangible progress to reform", he added.
Bahrain has paid most of the £15m ($23m) needed to build the base, with the British paying ongoing costs. BBC
New Zealand beat Australia to retain Rugby World Cup
New Zealand held off a fierce Australian comeback to win a thrilling World Cup final and become the first team to retain their title.
Wonderful tries from Nehe Milner-Skudder and Ma'a Nonu had given the All Blacks a 21-3 lead early in the second half before David Pocock and Tevita Kuridrani struck back.
With 15 minutes to go there were just four points in it, but a nerveless long-distance drop-goal and penalty from Dan Carter snatched back control.
And when replacement Beauden Barrett sprinted away on to Ben Smith's clearing kick at the death history was made, with New Zealand also becoming the first three-time champions of the world.
The achievement is a fitting farewell to their phalanx of retiring greats.
Carter was outstanding under a ferocious Wallaby assault, landing 19 points from the tee, and his captain Richie McCaw was not far behind as their side was tested to the limit.
They have been the outstanding side of this generation, and once again found a way to win when the heat came on from their great trans-Tasman rivals.
The All Blacks came out at pace, McCaw smashing opposite number Michael Hooper, Wallabies' skipper Stephen Moore bloodied in the face and Carter curling over a testing penalty from out wide for 3-0 before Bernard Foley's simpler effort levelled it up.
Australia were targeting the great fly-half, Scott Sio lucky to escape a yellow card for a late hit and Sekope Kepu giving away a penalty for a high tackle that Carter popped over to retake the lead.
Matt Giteau was next to feel the intensity, clattered trying to tackle Kieran Read and unable to continue with what looked like concussion.
It was often messy and never less than flat-out, New Zealand dominating territory and possession but having to content themselves with a third Carter penalty, this time from way out right.
Then it came, a wonderful team move of magic hands and sweet timing - Conrad Smith finding space down the right, Aaron Smith popping up on his inside, McCaw taking his pass at pace and putting Milner-Skudder in at the corner.
Another perfect kick from Carter added the conversion for 16-3 at half-time and the Wallabies were sinking fast.
No team has ever scored so many in the first period of a World Cup final, and the brilliance resumed a minute into the second half.
This time it was Sonny Bill Williams, on for Conrad Smith, who sucked in three defenders before off-loading to Nonu, the wrecking-ball centre careering past the despairing Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell on a 40-metre run to the line.
Despite Carter's missed conversion the All Blacks appeared unstoppable, but when Ben Smith was sin-binned for tip-tackling Mitchell, Australia struck back - driving a maul off the line-out, Pocock at the back for the try, Foley curling over the conversion for 21-10.
Suddenly the men in gold sensed a chance and when Will Genia dinked a kick into the wide spaces in the right-hand corner, Ashley-Cooper was there to feed Kuridrani and send the huge centre away through Carter's tackle for another splendid score.
With Foley's conversion sailing over, 14 unanswered points had come in 11 minutes, and a thrilling contest was wide open once again.
Carter would have his revenge. From 40m out he struck the sweetest of drop-goals to extend the lead to 24-17, and then nailed a penalty from just inside the opposition half with seven minutes left.
Australia kept pressing, but when the ball was turned over in the New Zealand 22 Smith kicked clear, Barrett out-paced the despairing Pocock and the party could begin.
Man of the match - Dan Carter
After missing the 2011 World Cup final through injury, this was the perfect ending for world rugby's most perfect 10.
Carter could not dream of a better finale to his 12-year, 112-cap All Black career, and few would deny him the moment after what he has given the game down the years.
BBC
UN and Red Cross scold world leaders over 'conflict paralysis'
The heads of the UN and Red Cross have issued a rare joint rebuke to world leaders, accusing them of "disturbing paralysis" in the face of conflict.
"This flouts the very raison d'etre of the UN," its chief, Ban Ki-moon, said.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer said the world had rarely witnessed so much suffering and instability.
They urged immediate concrete steps to ease the plight of civilians in places like Afghanistan, Nigeria and Syria.
It is the first time the two bodies have issued a joint warning, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva, in a sign of desperation over the spread of conflicts across the world.
"Rarely before have we witnessed so many people on the move," Mr Maurer told reporters at a joint news conference with Mr Ban in Geneva on Saturday.
He said some 60 million people globally had been displaced from their homes because of conflict and violence - "the highest figure since World War Two".
In a statement, the two leaders said today's wars were being waged "in complete defiance of basic humanity".
Mr Maurer said this applied to combatants in the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
"Every day, we hear of civilians being killed and wounded in violation of the basic rules of international humanitarian law, and with total impunity. Instability is spreading. Suffering is growing. No country can remain untouched," he added.
Mr Ban said: "Enough is enough. Even war has rules. It is time to enforce them."
They called on states to do the following to help bring about peace:
reign in armed groups and hold them accountable for abuses, and stop the use of heavy weapons in populated areas protect and assist displaced people fleeing insecurity, and help to find long-term solutions ensure unhindered access to medical and humanitarian missions condemn those who violate international humanitarian law redouble efforts to find sustainable solutions to conflicts
Large numbers of migrants have been making their way across the Mediterranean to Europe in 2015, with many escaping war and conflict in their home countries.
The UN estimates that more than 700,000 people have crossed to Europe by boat so far this year - many of them refugees from war-torn Syria. The approach of winter has so far done little to slow the flow.
BBC
My Philadelphia Ghost Story
IT has always bothered me that I’ve never seen a ghost. As a sociologist who studies fear, I’m well acquainted with the statistics: Forty-two percent of American adults believe in ghosts.
Last year, in search of my own ghost story, I went to what is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in America: Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Nearly 60 paranormal investigation teams explore the site each year, seeking evidence of ghosts within.
Even if the lore was stripped away, the former prison would still be terrifying. Its 30-foot Gothic castle walls separate Philadelphia from an institution with a long history of pain and abuse, the first prison to use solitary confinement.
Built in 1829, Eastern State was occupied until 1971, after which it was scavenged and plundered by trespassers and nature alike. When the site was turned over to a nonprofit in the mid ’90s it was in a state of ruin: crumbling walls, roofs collapsed into cellblocks, rusted pipes strewn across floors and chipped paint that gave every surface a look of decay. Much of it remains the same today, though it now operates as a museum, capitalizing on its reputation with features like a haunted house and a “ghost bus.”
I thought it was best to travel with professionals and joined a team complete with photographers, a psychic, lots of equipment and experienced ghost hunters. They unpacked their cameras, tripods, audio recorders, even an electromagnetic field detector. We walked stealthily through the dark cellblocks, and as I passed each cell and looked in, I imagined brutal killers locked behind layers of stone and wardens treating inmates like animals. My palms were sweating and my heart rate had ticked up a notch. I was starting to feel afraid.
Our minds are so powerful that we can “think” our bodies into having real physiological reactions. You want to believe a drug will work, so it does. You want to see a ghost, so you’ll see a ghost. These psychosomatic experiences are the standard scientific explanation for paranormal phenomena, but it’s not all in our minds.
While our senses are keen, there are things happening around us that we are not completely aware of. For example: infrasound, sound waves of 20 hertz or less, mostly inaudible to the human ear. Our bodies can pick up these tiny vibrations through our skin and even our eyes. They register that something is not quite right, and have been shown to produce feelings of uneasiness, revulsion, fear and chills. This is the same process that alerts animals of a coming natural disaster. A large, empty building with lots of structural deficits — like, say, an abandoned prison — is a prime spot for infrasound.
We carried out the hunt in silence. I would have loved to get everyone in an fMRI right then and look at their brains.
Over the past 20 years, fMRI and EEG studies of Tibetan monks, Carmelite nuns, psychics and the hyper-religious have revealed the neurological manifestations of mystical experiences. Researchers have found that stimulation of the brain’s left anterior insula is linked to the feeling of a “sensed presence.” The neuroscientist Shahar Arzy and his colleagues found that repeated electrical stimulation of an area of the left temporo-parietal junction resulted in the subject’s perceiving a shadowy figure. And those who suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy have reported experiences comparable to supernatural encounters, including feelings of heightened spirituality, a “sensed presence,” and euphoria collectively known as Gastaut-Geschwind syndrome.
This is not to say everyone who reports seeing a ghost is suffering from brain damage or a neurological condition, but it does suggest that changes in the way our brain is communicating can make us feel as if we’re engaging with the paranormal.
We stopped at a cell that the psychic reported to be especially active. The hunters set up a cassette tape recorder and microphone. We peered into the cell, dark except for a bright beam of moonlight coming in through the tiny window. I was staring harder than I ever had before.
The only sound came from the slow, hypnotic turning of the cassette tape. Time slowed to a crawl.
The passage of time is a subjective experience influenced by how important and how novel an experience is. New things, threatening things, arousing things all are going to feel as if they last longer. Our brains are working overtime to make sure we remember every little detail for future reference, gathering and processing all the signals and sensations in our bodies.
Standing in front of the prison cell I was overwhelmed by both the history of the prison and the anticipation of the hunt.
And that is when I felt it. A chill at the base of my neck quickly rippled throughout my body. My shoulders shuddered. I felt warm, relaxed and yet fully aware of everything around me. I was full of emotion and felt an incredible closeness to the four ghost hunters next to me, people I had met just hours before.
This was a sensation I had never experienced. For a few glorious moments I believed that a ghost, perhaps the long-ago occupant of this cell, was passing through me. I spent the rest of the evening in a trance, following the hunters through the cold, empty, eerie hallways.
I had my ghost story, finally.
Or did I? I knew that my powerful paranormal experience was most likely a result of my heightened, sensitized emotional state. The feelings I experienced are similar to what’s known as an “autonomous sensory meridian response.” It is not a clinical diagnosis, and there is skepticism over whether it is a physiologically distinct, measurable experience.
But whether it was the intense emotions induced by the building, the infrasound, a misfiring of key brain circuits, or my own desire to believe, I left that day with a far from normal experience.
Inside the old prison we were alive with energy, anticipation and excitement. I allowed myself to suspend my disbelief and indulge the instinct in every one of us to search and explore. I will never give up that adventure, and neither should you.
The New York Times
Nasa tracking Asteroid TB145 with radio telescopes
An asteroid called TB145 will pass within a few hundred thousand kilometres of the earth.
Astronomers only discovered its existence this month.
Scientists say it will not hit us for a least 100 years.
Tim Allman reports.
BBC
Syria conflict: Russia warns US of 'proxy war risk'
Russia has warned of the risk of a "proxy war" in the Middle East after the US said it would send special forces to Syria.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this increased the need for co-operation between the US and Russia.
US officials said "fewer than 50" troops would "train, advise and assist" vetted opposition forces in fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS).
It will be the first time that US troops operate openly in Syria.
Mr Lavrov said the US had decided on its move "unilaterally and without any reference to the Syrian leadership".
He added: "I am convinced that neither the United States nor Russia of course want any kind of slide into a so-called proxy war. But to me it is obvious that this situation makes the task of co-operation between the militaries even more relevant."
He was speaking after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Vienna.
"Our role fundamentally and the strategy is to enable local forces but does that put US forces in harm's way? It does, no question about it," Defence Secretary Ash Carter later told reporters.
He did not rule out further deployments of special forces to the region, if the initial mission was deemed a success.
For more than a year, US-led coalition forces have been carrying out air strikes against IS, which controls a large part of northern Syria and parts of neighbouring Iraq.
The US recently abandoned its Syria rebel training effort, opting to provide equipment and arms directly to rebel leaders instead.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama wanted to provide additional support for Syrian rebel fighters who had been having success on the battlefield.
"There are now moderate opposition forces that are 45 miles (72km) outside [IS stronghold] Raqqa," he said. "The president is prepared to intensify the elements that have shown promise."
He added: "This is an intensification of a strategy he discussed a year ago."
The numbers are small, nonetheless the US decision represents a notable shift in US policy. Their mission will be "to help co-ordinate local ground forces and coalition efforts" against IS in northern Syria. In all likelihood they may fight alongside Kurdish forces who have been the most effective of Washington's local allies.
"Co-ordination" could well mean forward air controllers - teams trained in the skills of linking up tactical air power with troops on the ground, designating targets and calling in strikes. The fact that the US now has specialised A-10 ground attack aircraft reasonably close by at the Turkish air base of Incirlik may also be significant.
This is a small step intended not least to reassure Washington's unsettled allies in the region. The drift in US policy has become even more apparent since Russia's muscular intervention from the air. But to be convincing, the US may need to do a good deal more and that seems to be at variance with President Obama's basic instincts.
This week's talks in Vienna involved Iran for the first time.
The summit sought to close the gap between the US and its allies, who support the rebels, and the key foreign allies of the Syrian government, Russia and Iran.
World leaders say progress was made in the "historic" talks to resolve Syria's civil war, but they continue to differ on the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.
BBC
Bangladeshi secular publisher hacked to death
A Bangladeshi publisher of secular books has been hacked to death in the capital Dhaka in the second attack of its kind on Saturday, police say.
Faisal Arefin Dipon, 43, was killed at his office in the city centre, hours after another publisher and two secular writers were injured in an attack.
They are the latest victims in a series of deadly attacks on secularists since blogger Avijit Roy was hacked to death by suspected Islamists in February.
Both publishers published Mr Roy.
BBC
Extreme Study Abroad: The World Is Their Campus
As educators question what college should look like in the 21st century, one answer is: global.
And to higher education trailblazers, that means more than junior year abroad or overseas internships. They find campuses to be insular places that leave students ill prepared for a globalized world, and they question the efficacy of traditional pedagogy, especially the lecture format, at a time when the same information can be imparted online.
Consider one emerging approach, wherein students hop from campus to campus across continents, earning an undergraduate degree in the process. In these programs, they spend the majority of their college years outside the United States and immerse themselves in diverse cultures. Foreign cities are their classrooms.
“More and more students, especially at the elite end, are realizing, ‘I can get my basic learning on the Internet and then have this collection of experiences around the globe that enhances who I am as a person,’” said Michael B. Horn, a co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute.
Campus hopping is not for everyone. Many students don’t want to give up the sustained community built over four years on a campus. Administrators note that 18-year-olds who choose this unorthodox college path have a special blend of traits: maturity, curiosity, adventurousness, flexibility and openness.
If It’s Third Semester, This Must Be Berlin
W. Louis Brickman, 18, could have taken many paths to college. As a student at the prestigious Hunter College High School in New York, he was accepted at several elite liberal arts schools and two research universities. But he surprised teachers and friends by choosing to enter the second class at the Minerva Schools, a start-up based in San Francisco, where he will spend three-quarters of his time in other countries. “I’m passionate about international travel, and it felt to me inadequate to stay in one place for four years,” said Mr. Brickman, who was born in Berlin and raised in Manhattan.
Minerva, which is affiliated with the Keck Graduate Institute, was founded by a former tech executive, Ben Nelson, who believed that traditional colleges were not adequately preparing students for the real world.
After freshman year in San Francisco, students will move to a new country each semester; by the time they graduate, they will have lived in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Seoul, Bangalore, Istanbul and London. Minerva’s first two classes comprise 139 students from 35 countries. They live together in leased residence halls, where they cook for themselves, and meet for seminars in libraries, museums or parks. Not owning buildings enables Minerva to keep costs to $22,950 a year, including tuition and housing but not travel.
Minerva’s approach to upending traditional education goes beyond travel. Professors lead live video seminars that are reserved for group projects and debate — students often meet to take the classes together. And while majors are offered in the usual fields, like humanities, science and business, the overarching goal is to teach students to think critically and creatively and to communicate and interact well with others.
“We want them to be able to adapt to jobs that don’t even exist yet, so we give them a great range of the best cognitive tools,” said Stephen Kosslyn, Minerva’s founding dean.
Based on research into how students learn, Minerva’s faculty concluded that a key skill is being able to apply learning in new and different contexts. Toward that end, students keep blogs during their travels about how they’re using the concepts they learned freshman year. Yes, they’re graded.
“For the past 14 years of my life, I’ve been imagining I’d have this traditional college campus experience, so that part has been somewhat of a challenge,” Mr. Brickman said. “But every class is relevant to the real world.”
Living Like the Locals
When Clarissa Gordon, a 21-year-old senior, was studying in India, the electricity would often go out when a paper was due. She would have to find an outside source so she could email it to her professor, but she felt she learned as much from experiences like that as from writing the papers themselves.
“They put us in cities that are not typical for studying abroad, and they let us learn how to live like the people,” she said. “I feel like they teach us how to survive.”
L.I.U. Global, born out of a Quaker school established 50 years ago and later acquired by Long Island University, debuted a European program last year and added three new minors. Students spend a year in Costa Rica and a year in Spain and Italy as a group, and then choose whether to spend a year in China or traveling across Asia and Australia. Senior year they do an internship somewhere in the world, then return to the Brooklyn campus to write a thesis on a global issue to earn a bachelor’s degree in global studies.
“We take the world and its problems as the syllabus for the college,” said Jeffrey Belnap, the dean. “Most study-abroad programs think in dyadic terms — it’s that way in this country and this way in my country — but that’s just the first step in understanding global realities.”
Faculty from both L.I.U. and partner universities teach classes in situ. The school is also experimenting with Google Classroom, a software platform, for class discussions across five continents. Cost of attendance, including in-country expenses and some airfare, is about $50,000.
Ms. Gordon, who is Haitian-American and grew up in West Orange, N.J., is now in Trinidad and Tobago studying how art forms like calypso and theater have been used for political and social purposes, such as emancipation. She hopes to go on to graduate school, and eventually work with refugees. She had applied to traditional schools like Penn State before discovering L.I.U. Global. “I could have sat in a classroom and learned from textbooks,” Ms. Gordon said, “but there’s no other education you can get that’s traveling and learning from people, whether it be a rickshaw driver in India or a Buddhist from a monastery in Tibet.”
The Hop On / Hop Off Degree
Erin McNellis, 21, did not travel far when she started at Webster University in St. Louis, where she also grew up. But she chose it because its international program would enable her to keep on traveling.
Webster has campuses in seven countries, and partnerships with schools in seven more. Students can study in Thailand, Ghana, China, Japan, Mexico and throughout Europe. About 20 percent of its students study elsewhere in the world; some never study in St. Louis at all.
“For us, it’s not about: You go somewhere, you study for a bit and you come back to St. Louis,” said Elizabeth J. Stroble, Webster’s president. “It’s much more about: How can you make the world your home?”
Students can spend full terms at Webster’s campuses abroad, and some courses combine an online or in-person class with an immersion trip; for example, a human rights studies class traveled to Rwanda and a class on international criminal law ended with a trip to Leiden, the Netherlands.
For a seamless transition, credits are the same as on the St. Louis campus, as is the $25,300 tuition, though Webster tacks on a $500 study-abroad fee and in many cases does not pay for airfare.
Ms. McNellis, a senior double-majoring in math and international studies, is spending part of this semester in Athens to study city life in ancient Greece. She has also studied in Rome, London and Madrid and completed an archaeology internship in Ireland. She said that hopping among campuses had given her a different experience than the usual study abroad: “It’s not just a vacation. I’m going to learn.”
“You remember that the other people across the world from you are people,” she said. “They have their own thoughts and motives and dreams and desires. It’s a humbling realization that we’re all the same.”
New Yorks Times
Many Need to Shop Around on HealthCare.gov as Prices Jump, U.S. Says
WASHINGTON — In Tennessee, the state insurance commissioner approved a 36 percent rate increase for the largest health insurer in the state’s individual marketplace. In Iowa, the commissioner approved rate increases averaging 29 percent for the state’s dominant insurer.
Health insurance consumers logging into HealthCare.gov on Sunday for the first day of the Affordable Care Act’s third open enrollment season may be in for sticker shock, unless they are willing to shop around. Federal officials acknowledged on Friday that many people would need to pick new plans to avoid substantial increases in premiums.
But, they said, even with a number of companies leaving the marketplace for health insurance under President Obama’s signature health care law, most people around the country will still be able to choose from three or more insurers in 2016.
New York Times
Russian Plane Crash in Sinai Peninsula Kills 224
CAIRO — All 224 people aboard a Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt early Saturday have been confirmed dead, officials say.
An Egyptian cabinet statement on Saturday morning said that military aircraft had spotted the wreckage of the Airbus plane in a mountainous area in Sinai. The Russian Embassy in Cairo said that all on board the plane had been killed.
The Egyptian statement said that the plane had been carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members. It left the airport in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh shortly before 6 a.m. and disappeared from radar screens at 6:20 a.m. The Egyptian civil aviation ministry said the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet when it disappeared. It also said that search and rescue teams had reached the wreckage, in the Hasna district, south of the city of Arish in the northern Sinai Peninsula.
Speaking on a nationally broadcast news conference, Maxim Sokolov, Russia’s minister of transportation, said the cause had yet to be confirmed. Russian news reports said that preliminary details gave no indication that the plane was shot down.Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia, ordered the establishment of a state commission to investigate the crash. The Russian government also announced it was dispatching a special plane from its emergency services to take a team of investigators and rescuers to the scene. Mr. Putin also declared Sunday a day of mourning for the victims.
The plane was operated by Kogalymavia, which is privately owned, and officially changed its name to MetroJet several years ago. It operates five Airbus A-321s. The flight, Kogalymavia 9268, had been scheduled to land at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg. Airbus said in a statement that the plane was an A321-200 that had been manufactured in 1997 and had been operated by Metrojet since 2012.
The plane requested an emergency landing before disappearing, the Interfax report said. Aircraft crew members had previously complained about the state of one engine, the RIA Novosti agency reported.
Russian news reports quoted a website called FlightRadar 24, which tracks air traffic around the globe, as saying the plane was descending at a rate of 6,000 feet per minute just before it disappeared from radar.
Those on board the flight were Russian tourists, including 17 children, according to Russian officials.
Asked about a possible link to terrorism and warnings not to fly over that region due to the violent insurgency there, Mr. Sokolov said that the Egyptian government had not closed the airspace over the Sinai Peninsula.
Apart from coastal resorts in the south, much of the Sinai Peninsula is a closed military zone and the location of a long-running insurgency by jihadist groups against the government of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Possible threats to civil aviation from conflict on the ground is of particular interest in Russia because rebels it backs in eastern Ukraine have been accused of using a surface-to-air missile last year to bring down a Malaysia Airlines flight, killing all aboard.
Russia denies any link to the catastrophe and blames the Ukrainian government for the downing. A recent report by the Dutch government said the plane was destroyed by a missile apparently fired from territory controlled by the rebels, but it also faulted Kiev for not closing its airspace.
The sharp drop in the value of the ruble and tensions with the West over the past year have sharply diminished the number of Russians traveling abroad.
Yet Egypt remained the No. 1 tourist destination for Russians leaving the country in first six months of 2015, with more than one million Russians vacationing there, according to the Russian Federal agency for tourism. A basic package tour including a flight, hotel and meals can be had for as little as $500 or $600 for a week.
The New York Times
German Village of 102 Braces for 750 Asylum Seekers
SUMTE, Germany — This bucolic, one-street settlement of handsome redbrick farmhouses may for the moment have many more cows than people, but next week it will become one of the fastest growing places in Europe. Not that anyone in Sumte is very excited about it.
In early October, the district government informed Sumte’s mayor, Christian Fabel, by email that his village of 102 people just over the border in what was once Communist East Germany would soon be taking in 1,000 asylum seekers.
His wife, the mayor said, assured him it must be a hoax. “It certainly can’t be true” that such a small, isolated place would be asked to accommodate nearly 10 times more migrants than it has residents, she told him. “She thought it was a joke,” he recalled.
But it was not. Sumte has become a showcase of the extreme pressures bearing down on Germany as it scrambles to find shelter for what, by the end of the year, could be well over a million people seeking refuge from poverty or wars in Africa, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
In a small concession to the villagers, Alexander Götz, a regional official from the government of Lower Saxony, told them at a meeting this week that the initial number of refugees, who start arriving on Monday and will be housed in empty office buildings, would be kept to 500, and limited to 750 in all.
Nevertheless, the influx is testing the limits of tolerance and hospitality in Sumte, and across Germany. It is also straining German politics broadly, creating deep divisions in the conservative camp of Chancellor Angela Merkel and energizing a constellation of extremist groups that feel their time has come.
One of the few people, in fact, who seem enthused by the plan for Sumte is Holger Niemann, 32, an admirer of Hitler and the lone neo-Nazi on the elected district council. He rejoices at the opportunities the migrant crisis has offered.
“It is bad for the people, but politically it is good for me,” Mr. Niemann said of the government’s plan that, even under the pared back program, will leave the German villagers outnumbered by migrants by more than seven to one.
Germans face “the destruction of our genetic heritage” and risk becoming “a gray mishmash,” Mr. Niemann added, predicting that public anxiety over Ms. Merkel’s open-armed welcome to refugees would help demolish a postwar political consensus in Germany built on moderation and compromise.
Unlike those in other European countries, far-right political parties in Germany have had little success in national elections, and they remain a fringe firmly rejected by the overwhelming majority of Germans.
Reinhold Schlemmer, a former Communist who served as the mayor here before and immediately after the collapse of East Germany, said people like Mr. Niemann would “have been put in prison right away” during the Communist era.
“Now they can stand up and preach,” he said. “People say this is democracy, but I don’t think it is democracy to let Nazis say what they want.”
Mr. Schlemmer is among those who are increasingly wary that extremists are exploiting widespread concerns, even in the political mainstream, over absorbing vast numbers of refugees, as the influx tests Germany’s capacity to cope.
Sumte has no shops, no police station, no school and only one bus passes through each day. The initial number of arrivals was, in fact, reduced to avoid straining the local sewage system and give time for new pumps to be installed.
“We have zero infrastructure here for so many people,” Mr. Fabel, the mayor, said.
The strain can be seen even in far more prosperous and prepared places than this one, including Hamburg, the city closest to Sumte, where authorities have already turned municipal parks and an industrial lot into migrant tent camps.
The New York Times
California doctor convicted of murder by over-prescription
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Southern California doctor was found guilty of murder on Friday for over-prescribing drugs that caused the fatal overdose of three patients, in a landmark verdict prosecutors called the first such conviction in the United States.
The case comes amid what public health officials describe as a national epidemic of prescription drug abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last year the trend was fueling nearly 17,000 overdose deaths annually, as well as a rise in heroin addiction.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury deliberated nine days before convicting Dr. Hsiu Ying "Lisa" Tseng, 45, an osteopath who specialized in internal medicine, of three counts of second-degree murder.
She also was found guilty of 19 counts of unlawfully prescribing controlled substance and one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
Tseng, who has remained in custody since March 2012, faces a maximum penalty of life in prison when she returns to court on Dec. 14 for sentencing, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said.
Criminally prosecuting physicians for patients' deaths is relatively rare, with one notable case being the 2011 involuntary manslaughter conviction of Dr. Conrad Murray for giving pop star Michael Jackson a fatal dose of a surgical anesthetic to help him sleep.
Prosecutors said Friday's verdict, capping a six-week trial, marked the first time in which a U.S. doctor was found guilty of murder for over-prescribing drugs.
Licensed to practice in 1997, Tseng opened a storefront medical office in 2005 in Rowland Heights, a hillside community east of Los Angeles that is home to many upper-middle-class and wealthy immigrants from China, Taiwan and South Korea.
At the trial, prosecutors pointed to nine overdose deaths associated with Tseng's practice in less than three years, during which they said she had made $5 million from her clinic, dispensing potent, addictive medications to people who did not need them.
These drugs include powerful narcotics such as oxycodone, methadone and hydrocodone, and sedatives like Xanax and Valium.
She was convicted in the 2009 deaths of three patients - Vu Nguyen, 28, Steven Ogle, 24, and Joseph Rovero, 21. None resided anywhere near Rowland Heights, and one, Rovero, was an Arizona State University student from the San Francisco area.
Deputy District Attorney John Niedermann told jurors Tseng failed to keep records of patient visits or prescriptions in dozens of instances and faked medical records when authorities began investigating her.
Defense lawyer Tracy Green said patients put themselves in jeopardy by taking drug dosages "far in excess" of what Tseng had prescribed, according to an account of closing arguments by City News Service.
Tseng, who received her medical degree from Michigan State University, voluntarily surrendered her medical license prior to arrest, but her federal license to prescribe drugs was revoked.
Yahoo News
Obama authorizes Special Ops Forces to deploy to Syria
President Obama has authorized sending dozens of Special Operations Forces to Syria to help advise local ground troops and coalition efforts in the fight against the Islamic State, officials said Friday.
The decision comes after administration officials earlier this week said they were looking at moving U.S. troops closer to the front lines in the anti-ISIS fight, as part of a broader effort to recharge the struggling campaign.
The deployment marks the first time U.S. troops will be working openly on the ground in Syria. A senior administration official called it a "small" deployment, involving "fewer than 50" Special Ops Forces to northern Syria.
Several other steps were also announced Friday, including a new potential deployment to Iraq.
According to the official, the administration is working with the Iraqi government to set up a "Special Operations Force (SOF) task force to further enhance our ability to target ISIL leaders and networks." The official also says the U.S. will be sending additional aircraft, including F-15 fighters and A-10s, to the Incirlik air base in Turkey.
Fox News is told that congressional leaders have been notified of the plans.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged at Friday's press briefing the changes might not be a game-changer and stressed that a diplomatic solution is ultimately needed.
"This military component of that strategy is an important part," he said, while urging a "political transition" in Syria. He called this an "intensification" of the president's already-announced strategy, while stressing that U.S. forces still don't have a "combat mission" in Syria.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter hinted at the deployment earlier this week, saying the U.S. was retooling its strategy in Iraq and Syria and would conduct unilateral ground raids if needed to target Islamic State militants. The U.S. has done special operations raids in Syria, and it participated in a ground operation to rescue hostages last week in northern Iraq that resulted in the first U.S. combat death in that country since 2011.
Reuters first reported that the administration was sending forces to Syria to serve as advisers.
Some lawmakers have been urging the Obama administration for months to get more engaged with the anti-ISIS campaign, particularly as Russia launches airstrikes -- which many U.S. officials say are targeting Syrian opposition members.
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, on Friday said a "more serious effort against ISIS in Syria is long overdue."
He said in a statement: "Absent a larger coherent strategy, however, these steps may prove to be too little too late. I do not see a strategy for success, rather it seems the Administration is trying to avoid a disaster while the President runs out the clock."
The changes come after a U.S. train-and-equip program to help Syrian rebels was effectively ended.
Top military officials testified earlier this week that their goal remains to "defeat ISIL" in the end.
"No one is satisfied with our progress to date," Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, Jr., testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
At the same hearing, Carter described a changing approach to the fight against ISIS, focusing largely on Raqqa, the Islamic State-declared capital in Syria, and Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq.
Carter said the U.S. would intensify the air campaign against the Islamic State with additional U.S. and coalition aircraft and heavier airstrikes.
The U.S.-led effort "will include more strikes against IS high-value targets as our intelligence improves, and also its oil enterprise, which is a critical pillar of IS's financial infrastructure," he said.
Fox News
I feel sorry for Kim Kardashian: Body shaming and social media
I am six months pregnant with my third child. I struggled to determine if the main distinction of this pregnancy is my age, partner, stage in life, or multiple responsibilities. Then I realized that it is a combination of it all.
The blessing of conception does not escape me, but its complexities have often left me feeling insecure.
At 27, I’m still a young woman, but my body is much different than it was during my earlier pregnancies. There are many more aches and pains than I remember.
My husband is as involved with this pregnancy as much as humanly possible (cravings and all!). Armed with books, apps, and the Internet, my darling Touré has earned the nickname “Pregnancy Police.” He’s committed to me not lifting anything over 2-3 pounds. and is sure to turn me over when I turn onto my back while sleeping.
Social media is not a place for validation and self-esteem boosts. Building your confidence on likes and esteem from comments is a recipe for a dangerous cocktail.
I’ve been in at least 20 cities this year alone, speaking to thousands of women across the country.
Once I land, I jump right into the trenches of marriage, motherhood, ministry, and whatever else life manages to throw my way, all while watching my ever-expanding midsection struggle to squeeze into clothes that were once too big and attempting to control the hormonal changes of pregnancy.
Incidentally, this has made me think six words I never thought would come to mind:
I feel sorry for Kim Kardashian.
I bet that’s a curveball you didn’t see coming! I’ve been shy to share my pregnancy with the nearly 200K followers I have on Instagram, 100K on Twitter, or 360K on Facebook. Everything from my nose spreading to my waistline disappearing has increased my need to protect the insecurities and vulnerabilities that can come with pregnancy.
For the first time in months, I posted a full body image with my husband. While most of the comments were celebratory in nature, there was one that I admittedly let get under my skin: “More weight, nice but...You were much better before this...,” the user wrote.
In her defense, my loose blouse made it virtually impossible to detect that I was pregnant but did that justify her right to critique my body?
In a culture that promotes full expression of opinions, it is unrealistic to believe everyone will agree or communicate disagreements respectfully, but that doesn’t take the sting away.
Many of the people who’ve followed my story quickly came to my defense, yet I found myself pondering the advantages and drawbacks of sharing my personal life on public platforms.
I’ve come to genuinely love and connect with thousands of women on a journey to wholeness, joy, and purpose throughout the years.
As that exposure grows so do the opportunities to have my story dissected and critiqued. I’m learning that, as with most things in life, you must take the good with the bad.
I read that Kim Kardashian stopped smiling in photos because of body shaming. Even Chrissy Teigen recently vowed off social media after receiving negativity from the reveal of her first “bump” picture.
I won’t be so presumptuous as to speak to their state of mind. One can only imagine how intense the heat from their spotlight has become. However, I do understand feeling the need to place the division between what you freely give to the world and what you reserve for the intimate moments of life.
As much as I would like to think one post could create civility on the Internet forever, I’ve learned not to think so highly of my writing. Instead, I want to challenge the notion I’m guilty of believing.
Social media is not a place for validation and self-esteem boosts. Building your confidence on likes and esteem from comments is a recipe for a dangerous cocktail.
Avoid the intoxication that comes with being universally accepted and challenge your heart to seek wholeness from above, validation from good deeds, and guidance from trusted sources.
Don’t feel compelled to make your life an open book if you’re not prepared for the discussion that comes along with it.
Some things are better left treasured in your heart until you can handle the scrutiny that comes with being exposed.
Fox News
27 killed, more than 180 injured in fire at nightclub in Romania
At least 27 people were killed and more than 180 hospitalized with injuries on Friday after a heavy metal band's pyrotechnical show sparked a fire inside a nightclub in Romania, officials said.
Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea initially said an explosion occurred at a club located in a basement in downtown Bucharest, but authorities at the scene later said there had only been a fire.
The incident occured during a Halloween party at the Colectiv nightclub, which had over 400 people inside at the time, Sky News reported.
Witnesses at the scene told Digi 24 television station the fire began after a spark on a stage where the metal band Goodbye to Gravity was performing ignited some of the polystyrene decor.
Some victims left the scene with severe burns, while others were being resuscitated on the street outside the venue, according to Romanian media reports.
Victor Ionescu, who was at the club with his girlfriend, told Romania's Antena 3 TV by telephone that there were huge flames inside the packed club.
"People were fainting, they were fainting from the smoke. It was total chaos, people were trampling on each other," he said. "It was a tragedy that could have been avoided if there had been more organization from the emergency services."
Raed Arafat, a government health ministry official, said that people were treated for burns, smoke inhalation and lesions at hospitals around the capital.
"It is a tragedy without precedent and it is an intervention without precedent," he said.
The country’s ministry said there were 60 ambulances and fire engines sent to the scene and a mobile hospital has been set up outside.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis wrote on his Facebook page that he was "shaken and deeply hurt by the tragic event. ... It is a very sad moment for us all, for our nation and for me personally." He said he was considering declaring a day of national mourning.
According to the Bucharest-based metal band's Facebook page, lead singer Andrei Gault was the 2008 winner of "Megastar," a Romanian show similar to "American Idol." The band has five members and has released two albums since it formed in 2011.
Fox News
Official says no plans to release Obama-Clinton emails now; State Dept. posts 7,000 new pages
The White House has decided it will not release any emails between President Obama and Hillary Clinton until after he leaves office, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News – a development that came as the State Department released another massive tranche of Clinton documents.
The department released 7,000 pages of Clinton emails on Friday in the agency’s largest release since it began posting the records in May.
But as with prior releases, any communication between Obama and his then-secretary of state was absent.
The administration official told Fox News there was a “small number” of emails between the two, described as “mostly non-substantive” because the two leaders conducted most their discussions in person or by phone.
But, as first reported by Reuters, the White House does not plan to release them until after Obama leaves office in 2017. The White House position is that the president’s communications are not subject to public record requests under the Freedom of Information Act and can be withheld while he’s in office. The George W. Bush White House likewise held that his correspondence would not be released until he left office – though the Clinton campaign has pledged to make her records public.
“There is a long history of presidential records being kept confidential while the president is in office,” the senior administration official said in a statement. “With regard to the president’s email, as we have previously acknowledged, the president did on occasion trade emails with Secretary Clinton, and we presume those communications will ultimately be made public, along with the rest of the president’s records, after he leaves office.”
The State Department, meanwhile, plans to release a total of 55,000 emails handed over by Clinton, who was using a private email address and server during her tenure as secretary of state.
A State Department spokesman said the latest batch contains 200-300 emails with information that has since been deemed classified.
Heavily redacted exchanges regarding Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Burma are among the retroactively classified emails in the batch.
Clinton has maintained all along that she had never received or sent any classified documents at the time on her private address or server. The email use is currently the subject of FBI and other probes.
Unclassified exchanges include an email from close adviser Sidney Blumenthal, who refers to Obama’s faltering poll numbers, calling it the “vulnerability of charisma.” Blumenthal has been a frequent name among the thousands of emails already released, often offering the then-secretary advice and gossip on foreign policy flashpoints, including the run-up to the intervention in Libya.
Though past email releases showed Blumenthal offering advice mostly on Libya, this batch showed him writing to Clinton about Syria and other countries.
One email passed on a report from a "friend" and "Syria expert," who met with a Syrian diplomat who apparently asked that the U.S. "stop supporting groups such as the Syrian National Council b/c they have very little legitimacy or popularity in Syria," but recommended "showing outward support for the serious and respected Syrian opposition elements."
Some communications even pertained to the use of personal email.
A June 2011 email from senior official Anne-Marie Slaughter to Clinton advised "it would be a great time for someone inside or outside to make a statement/ write an op-ed that points out that State's technology is so antiquated that NO ONE uses a State-issued laptop and even high officials routinely end up using their home email accounts to be able to get their work done quickly and effectively."
Clinton responded, "I think this makes good sense."
Republicans zeroed in on the fact that hundreds more emails contained retroactively classified material.
"This court-ordered email release is another reminder of why Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted in the White House," Republican National Committe Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. "The hundreds of additional emails found to contain classified information and ongoing FBI investigation illustrate just how badly Hillary Clinton jeopardized national security and misled the American people."
Clinton also exchanged an email with top aide Jake Sullivan who sent along a question from a reporter about the Israelis sounding "cocky" in a press briefing after a meeting with Clinton. She joked that they always sound cocky whether “in the air or on the ground.”
Others are even more light-hearted, like one asking the staff to keep track of two concert dates on the Carole King/James Taylor tour.
Fox News
2 dead, others missing as severe storms ravage parts of Texas
Two people are confirmed dead and two others are missing as severe storms plagued Central and Southeast Texas on Friday.
The victims of the storm – one from Austin and one outside San Antonio – were swept away from rising flood waters. Another man and woman were still unaccounted in separate incidents in the Austin area on Friday and crews were still searching the area early Saturday.
Teams from the National Weather Service are expected to examine three areas Saturday where tornadoes were thought to have wreaked havoc on Friday. The San Antonio Express-News reported that some areas received some extensive wind damage.
The storms and suspected tornadoes have saturated an already soaked swath of the state that was still trying to dry out from the remnants of Hurricane Patricia. The storms forced more evacuations of flood-prone areas and slowing or shutting down traffic on long stretches of Interstate 35.
More than 16 inches of rain drenched one neighborhood and Austin Bergstrom International Airport suspended all flights after a half-foot of water flooded the air traffic control tower. A lazy creek cutting through Texas wine country swelled into a rushing torrent, sending eight members of a vacationing church group scrambling to a second floor when they were rescued by the National Guard.
Powerful winds tossed a trailer from an RV park onto the roof of a three-story Holiday Inn. Abandoned cars, many submerged in water, littered back roads that weary drivers risked after heavy downpours flooded Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Austin, closing one of the busiest stretch of roadways in the U.S.
“We’ve got a lot of damage down here,” Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said. The Express-News reported about 7,000 people were without power Friday afternoon.
Last weekend, storms from Patricia's Category 5 aftermath dumped nearly a foot of rain in parts of the same region. Although not deadly, that drenching left the ground saturated and unable to sop up the latest deluge.
Forecasters say an upper-level disturbance from Mexico carried the storms into Texas as a strong El Nino is expected to make for a wet winter in the U.S.
The Blanco River – which produced massive flooding in surrounding towns earlier this year when it overflowed in May – swelled up to about 26 feet in Wimberley, nearly twice the flood stage. Residents were evacuated from the area and a community center was opened as a shelter.
Farther south in Floresville, a suspected tornado caused only minor injuries, said Sgt. Jason Reyes of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Ruth Veliz, whose parents own a taco shop in town, said one of her employees yelled "Tornado!" and tried to keep the winds from blowing inside before a customer pulled her to safety.
"The door was flying open with her as she was trying to close it," Veliz said.
Wind gusts of up to 70 mph were reported in some places. The flooded portion of Interstate 35 was reopened later Friday, but not before southbound drivers turned against traffic and tried driving north along the shoulder. Winds peeled off roofs elsewhere and collapsed a historic 19th-century building in the small town of D'Hanis, one of three cities where suspected tornadoes touched down.
"If it would have happened at 10 a.m. instead of 4 a.m., might have been a different story," Medina County Sheriff Randy Brown said.
Fox News
Chile seizes erotic version of Little Red Riding Hood
The Chilean government has begun seizing copies of an erotic version of the children's story Little Red Riding Hood.
They were mistakenly distributed to 283 primary schools over the past year.
The book, entitled Little Red Riding Hood Eats the Wolf, is a collection of six short stories with explicit sexual references.
The mix-up was discovered by a teacher in the remote southern Chilean town of Rio Bueno.
The teacher alerted the authorities after he was approached by a young boy who told him about the book's contents.
The book was written by Colombian author Pilar Quintana and published in Chile in 2012.
One of the chapters tells the story of a sexual encounters between a teacher and a female pupil.
Another one describes the rape of a 13-year-old girl.
"This book can cause irreparable damage to our students," said the mayor of Rio Bueno, Luis Reyes, who took the case to Chile's education ministry this week.
"To describe in such a detailed manner the violation of an underage girl does not help in any way in the education process of young children", he said.
A Chilean government statement said the book "does not meet the appropriate pedagogical requirements to be included in the national curriculum".
The folk story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf dates back to the Middle Ages in Europe.
But its best-known version is that of the Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jacob, first published in 1812.
BBC
Russian airliner Flight KGL9268 crashes in central Sinai
A Russian airliner has crashed in central Sinai with more than 200 people on board, the office of Egypt's prime minister has confirmed.
The Airbus A-321 had just left the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Wreckage was found in the Hasana area and bodies removed, along with the plane's "black box". An official described a "tragic scene".
Flight KGL9268 disappeared when travelling at 9,500m (31,000ft).
Egyptian officials said all the passengers were Russian.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an official investigation into the crash, and for rescue teams to be sent to the crash site.
A commission headed by Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov is to leave for Egypt on Saturday afternoon.
A criminal case has also been opened against the airline, Kogalymavia, for "violation of rules of flight and preparation for them", Russia's Ria news agency reported.
The airline, based in western Siberia, operates under the name Metrojet.
Russian authorities say it was carrying 217 passengers, 17 of them children aged between 2 and 17, and seven crew. Most were tourists.
A centre to help relatives of the passengers has been set up at Pulkovo airport, Tass news agency quoted St Petersburg city officials as saying.
Initially there were conflicting reports about the fate of the plane, some suggesting it had disappeared over Cyprus.
But the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail confirmed in a statement that a "Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai".
It added that Mr Ismail had formed a crisis committee to deal with the crash.
Media reports say at least 50 ambulances have been sent to the scene.
Access to the area is strictly controlled by the military and the terrain is difficult, correspondents say.
One official told Reuters news agency that at least 100 bodies had been found.
"I now see a tragic scene," the official said. "A lot of dead on the ground and many died whilst strapped to their seats."
The plane split in two, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock, he added.
The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said in a statement that flight KGL9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and had been due into St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport at 12:10.
The authority added that the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar.
Egypt's civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,500m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.
Live flight tracking service Flight Radar 24's Mikail Robertson confirmed the altitude.
He told the BBC that the plane started to drop very fast, losing 1,500m in one minute before coverage was lost.
Aviation official Ayman al-Mukadem said the pilot had reported technical difficulties before the plane went missing, the Associated Press reported.
The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo says it is likely there will be speculation about militant involvement in the incident - Sinai has an active militant network, with local Jihadis who have allied themselves to so-called Islamic State.
But the aircraft's altitude suggests that it could not have been struck from the ground, she adds.
Local weather observations in the vicinity of the rescue scene suggest relatively benign conditions.
BBC
