LOS ANGELES — Gene Wilder, the frizzy-haired actor who brought his deft comedic touch to such unforgettable roles as the neurotic accountant in "The Producers" and the mad scientist of "Young Frankenstein," has died. He was 83.
Wilder's nephew said Monday that the actor and writer died late Sunday at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, from complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Jordan Walker-Pearlman said in a statement that Wilder was diagnosed with the disease three years ago, but kept the condition private so as not to disappoint fans.
"He simply couldn't bear the idea of one less smile in the world," Walker-Pearlman said.
Wilder started his acting career on the stage, but millions knew him from his work in the movies, especially his collaborations with Mel Brooks on "The Producers," ''Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein." The last film — with Wilder playing a California-born descendant of the mad scientist, insisting that his name is pronounced "Frahn-ken-SHTEEN" — was co-written by Brooks and Wilder.
"Gene Wilder, one of the truly great talents of our time, is gone," Brooks wrote in a statement Monday. "He blessed every film we did together with his special magic and he blessed my life with his friendship. He will be so missed."
With his unkempt hair and big, buggy eyes, Wilder was a master at playing panicked characters caught up in schemes that only a madman such as Brooks could devise, whether reviving a monster in "Young Frankenstein" or bilking Broadway in "The Producers." Brooks would call him "God's perfect prey, the victim in all of us."
But he also knew how to keep it cool as the boozing gunslinger in "Blazing Saddles" or the charming candy man in the children's favorite "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." His craziest role: the therapist having an affair with a sheep in Woody Allen's "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex."
"The greatest comedic mind of my childhood is now gone," actor Josh Gad wrote on Twitter. "#RIP #GeneWilder & thank you 4 your pure imagination. This one hits hard."
Tweeted Jim Carrey: "Gene Wilder was one of the funniest and sweetest energies ever to take a human form. If there's a heaven he has a Golden Ticket."
Wilder was close friends with Richard Pryor and their contrasting personas — Wilder uptight, Pryor loose — were ideal for comedy. They co-starred in four films: "Silver Streak," ''Stir Crazy," ''See No Evil, Hear No Evil" and "Another You." And they created several memorable scenes, particularly when Pryor provided Wilder with directions on how to "act black" as they tried to avoid police in "Silver Streak."
But Wilder would insist in a 2013 interview that he was no comedian. He told interviewer Robert Osborne it was the biggest misconception about him.
"What a comic, what a funny guy, all that stuff! And I'm not. I'm really not. Except in a comedy in films," Wilder said. "But I make my wife laugh once or twice in the house, but nothing special. But when people see me in a movie and it's funny then they stop and say things to me about 'how funny you were.' But I don't think I'm that funny. I think I can be in the movies."
In 1968, Wilder received an Oscar nomination for his work in Brooks' "The Producers." He played the introverted Leo Bloom, an accountant who discovers the liberating joys of greed and corruption as he and Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) conceive a Broadway flop titled "Springtime For Hitler" and plan to flee with the money raised for the show's production. Matthew Broderick played Wilder's role in the 2001 Broadway stage revival of the show.
Though they collaborated on film, Wilder and Brooks met through the theater. Wilder was in a play with Brooks' then-future wife, Anne Bancroft, who introduced the pair backstage in 1963.
Wilder, a Milwaukee native, was born Jerome Silberman on June 11, 1933. His father was a Russian emigre, his mother was of Polish descent. When he was 6, Wilder's mother suffered a heart attack that left her a semi-invalid. He soon began improvising comedy skits to entertain her, the first indication of his future career.
He started taking acting classes at age 12 and continued performing and taking lesson through college. In 1961, Wilder became a member of Lee Strasberg's prestigious Actor's Studio in Manhattan.
That same year, he made both his off-Broadway and Broadway debuts. He won the Clarence Derwent Award, given to promising newcomers, for the Broadway work in Graham Greene's comedy "The Complaisant Lover."
He used his new name, Gene Wilder, for the off-Broadway and Broadway roles. He lifted the first name from the character Eugene Gant in Thomas Wolfe's "Look Back, Homeward Angel," while the last name was clipped from playwright Thornton Wilder. A key break came when he co-starred with Bancroft in Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage," and met Brooks, her future husband.
"I was having trouble with one little section of the play, and he gave me tips on how to act. He said, 'That's a song and dance. He's proselytizing about communism. Just skip over it, sing and dance over it, and get on to the good stuff.' And he was right," Wilder later explained.
Before starring in "The Producers," he had a small role as the hostage of gangsters in the 1967 classic "Bonnie and Clyde." He peaked in the mid-1970s with the twin Brooks hits "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein."
He went on to write several screenplays and direct several films. In 1982, while making the generally forgettable "Hanky-Panky," he fell in love with co-star Gilda Radner. They were married in 1984, and co-starred in two Wilder-penned films: "The Lady in Red" and "Haunted Honeymoon."
After Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, Wilder spent much of his time after promoting cancer research and opened a support facility for cancer patients. In 1991, he testified before Congress about the need for increased testing for cancer.
That same year, he appeared in his final film role: "Another You" with Pryor.
Wilder worked mostly in television in recent years, including appearances on "Will & Grace" — including one that earned him an Emmy Award for outstanding guest actor — and a starring role in the short-lived sitcom "Something Wilder." In 2015, he was among the voices in the animated "The Yo Gabba Gabba! Movie 2."
As for why he stopped appearing on the big screen, Wilder said in 2013 he was turned off by the noise and foul language in modern movies.
"I didn't want to do the kind of junk I was seeing," he said in an interview. "I didn't want to do 3D for instance. I didn't want to do ones where there's just bombing and loud and swearing, so much swearing... can't they just stop and talk instead of swearing?"
Wilder is survived by his wife, Karen, whom he married in 1991, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Katherine, from whom he was estranged.

Actor Gene Wilder, star of Mel Brooks movies, dies at 83


LOS ANGELES — Gene Wilder, the frizzy-haired actor who brought his deft comedic touch to such unforgettable roles as the neurotic accountant in "The Producers" and the mad scientist of "Young Frankenstein," has died. He was 83.


UK consumers stepped up their spending in the second quarter and businesses increased investment as the economy showed few signs of reticence before the June Brexit referendum.
Household spending rose 0.9 per cent from the first quarter, the fastest pace in almost two years, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. Business investment gained 0.5 per cent.
Growth overall quickened to 0.6 per cent from 0.4 per cent, unrevised from an initial estimate.
“Our survey returns, which include the period leading up to and immediately following the referendum, show no sign so far of uncertainty having significantly affected investment or GDP,” ONS chief economist Joe Grice said in a statement.
The decision to leave the European Union has cast an abrupt shadow over the economy, prompting the Bank of England to cut interest rates this month and piling pressure on new prime minister Theresa May to deliver a tax and spending boost.
While surveys suggest the June 23 referendum has done little to dampen the spirits of consumers, tougher times may lie ahead as quickening inflation threatens to erode almost two years of real-wage growth.
The rise in businesses investment last quarter was driven by spending on transport equipment including cars and planes, the ONS said.
The level of investment was 0.8 per cent lower than a year earlier. Net trade once again dragged on the economy, knocking 0.3 per centage point off growth in the second quarter as exports barely rose.
The 10 per cent fall in the trade-weighted value of the pound since the Brexit vote may aid exports, but not by enough to prevent a sharp slowdown.
The economy will contract by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, according to economists polled by Bloomberg between August 5 and August 12.
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The pound showed little response to the figures and was at $1.3218 as of 9:41 a.m. London time, up 0.2 per cent on the day.Growth in the second quarter was heavily centered on April.
Bloomberg

UK consumers stepped up spending in the second quarter


Surveys suggest Brexit referendum has done little to dampen the spirits of consumers


There will be a social time which will start at 10:30 a.m. Many past SCRTA Presidents, past superintendants and directors of schools, past and present school board members or a member their families will be in attendance. Scrap books from past years will also be on display for viewing. State Legislators is to be in attendance and Sullivan County Mayor Richard Venable will be making a presentation to the organization. Tennessee Retired Teachers Association Executive Director Donna Cotner will is to be in attendance.
The Sullivan County Retired Teachers Association was organized Sept. 1, 1966. when 45 teachers attended the organizational meeting. W.I. Spahr was elected SCRTA’s first President. The original purpose of SCRTA was to keep retirees interested in educational affairs of the county and state and in legislative matters dealing with retired teachers. That same purpose is still the purpose of SCRTA today.
The current membership of SCRTA is 302 members and all members are invited to make their required reservation for themselves and their guest to attend the Sept. 17 meeting and complimentary luncheon by calling Al Doty at (423) 323-3197 or emailing him at alddoty@yahoo.com by Wednesday, Sept. 7. Membership in the Sullivan County Retired Teachers Association is open to any teacher, administrator, or support staff who has retired from the Sullivan County School System. More information about SCRTA is welcomed and available through the same contact.

Retired teachers set 50th anniversary meeting


BLOUNTVILLE  The Sullivan County Retired Teachers Association (SCRTA) will have it 50th Anniversary meeting and luncheon Saturday, Sept, 17 at Sullivan Central High School.


Dustin Johnson watches his third shot out of a green side bunker on the 11th hole during the second round of The Barclays golf tournament at Bethpage State Park - Black Course last weekend. Photo by Eric Sucar-USA TODAY Sports
BLAINE, Minn.-- These eight guys will descend on Minnesota in a month, tear up the state's hardest golf course and bring back American pride and bragging rights for golf.
In theory, at least.
Eight of the 12 members for Ryder Cup Team USA became official Sunday, and on Monday Captain Davis Love III lauded each.
The eight automatically qualified based on their performance over the past two years. Love will select three additional team members — so-called captain's picks — Sept. 11 and the final player Sept. 25. So a number of high-profile players — Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk and Olympic bronze medalist Matt Kuchar — still could make the team.
The biennial USA-vs-Europe competition will be held Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska.
Unlike a typical golf event, the team competition features raucous crowds that push the boundaries of golf etiquette and players competing not for money, but national and continental pride under match-play formats that demand pressure golf from all quarters.
Europe has won the past three Ryder Cups, and eight of the last 10, leading to mounting pressure on Team USA to reclaim the cup that for most of its 89-year history was dominated by America.
Nine members of Team Europe have been named, with Captain Darren Clarke scheduled to announce his three captain's picks Tuesday morning.
Here are the eight Team USA members, in order of their qualifying points, with comments from Love:
- DUSTIN JOHNSON
2016 U.S. Open winner, 2 Ryder Cups
"One of our most talented players. He's a powerful, long hitter, obviously. ... He's willing to do anything we ask him to do. He fits in very, very well. He's easy to pair and he's just so calm under pressure. I remember when Corey (Pavin) was the captain over in (the 2010 Ryder Cup in) Wales and I was out with Dustin hitting some balls and his driver broke Thursday afternoon right before the Opening Ceremony. I would have panicked and Dustin is like, "I've got a great one back in the locker, let's go get it." ... He's a great steady influence on the team."
-JORDAN SPIETH
2015 Masters, U.S. Open winner, 1 Ryder Cup
"Team guy. He's all about his team. He's very organized. Got an incredible game plan. He sticks with his game plan. Something that we really talked about in this whole year-and-a-half process is we have to have a game plan and stick with it. Jordan is another guy that can be paired with anybody. Obviously, great putter under pressure."
-PHIL MICKELSON
5-time major winner, 10 Ryder Cups
"One of the biggest things that Phil brought up on this (USA Ryder Cup) committee is that we have to have some consistency and some continuity. Well, 11 teams in a row, Phil Mickelson is that for us. He's a veteran leader. He was unbelievable in (the USA-vs.-the world-minus-Europe 2015 Presidents Cup in) Korea. ... He was the star of the team both on and off the golf course. And I'll never forget Jack Nicklaus saying that when (Mickelson) played for Jack (in the 2007 Presidents Cup), Phil went 0-5 and Jack said he was the most valuable player on his team that year because Phil was a great team guy, great guy to have around the locker room and in the team room."
-PATRICK REED
Won The Barclays Sunday, 1 Ryder Cup
"Fiery competitor. ... He's a guy that's so competitive. He wants to be on this team. He wants to win. He's talked about it for two years. He's ready to go."
-JIMMY WALKER
2016 PGA Championship winner; 1 Ryder Cup
"Winning a major championship really got his game back going again. He's obviously one of the best players on (the PGA) Tour the last three or four years. A longer hitter than you think; he's got a lot of power, which will be great for Hazeltine.
But he had a taste of the Ryder Cup two years ago, and he really wants to be on the team. I think it was holding him back a little bit actually before the PGA. He was trying too hard to make points. But he's ready for more Ryder Cup and I'm excited to have him on the team."
-BROOKS KOEPKA
1 PGA Tour victory, no Ryder Cups
"Super strong player. He's great to pair with anybody because who wouldn't want to play with Brooks as far as he hits it? He's got a lot of power. He told me he's really motivated by watching Europe celebrate two years ago. He saw that. He wasn't on the team, but that really motivated him to make the team. He's going to add a lot of youthful enthusiasm and a lot of power to our team."
-BRANDT SNEDEKER
8 PGA Tour wins, 1 Ryder Cup
"He's only 35 years old, but he's been around a long time. One of my great friends, a guy we really relied on at (the 2012 Ryder Cup in) Medinah. He's a guy that wants to stand there on that last green and make the putt. He's an unbelievably great pressure putter. But he brings an air of confidence to the team room and just to the whole team. He just brightens up the room when he walks in. He's always positive and full of energy. Brandt's just a huge part of a lot of the teams, again, that I've been around the last ten years."
-ZACH JOHNSON
2007 Masters, 2015 Open Championship winner, 4 Ryder Cups
"Our No. 8 guy, who breathed a sigh of relief last night. Zach Johnson's been really working hard on his game the last few weeks. We had dinner last Sunday night after the Wyndham, and he was nervous about getting knocked out. I think here is another guy who has been trying really hard to make points, and I think it held him back a little bit. Now that I talked to him last night before dinner, I think Zach is going to free it up a little bit more the next couple weeks and go play. But he and (his wife) Kim are just great friends of (my wife) Robin and I. They are really stable in the team room. They are great leaders. I couldn't see going without Zach Johnson."


Hillary Clinton heads into the fall out front in enough states to give her at least a tie in the Electoral College, meaning that a victory in any of the several states now considered a toss-up would be enough to push her over the top and into the White House.
For Donald Trump, the electoral map is as daunting as it is friendly to Clinton. To win, he must sweep all of the toss-up battlegrounds and go on to pick off at least one state where the Democratic nominee now has an advantage.
That’s according to an Associated Press analysis of the map as it stands today. The analysis considers preference polling, recent electoral history, demographic trends and campaign priorities such as advertising, travel and on-the-ground staff.
A look at the race, state by state:
SOLID DEMOCRATIC: California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maine 2nd District, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state.
LEANS DEMOCRATIC: Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin.
TOSS-UP: Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio.
LEANS REPUBLICAN: Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska 2nd District, Utah.
SOLID REPUBLICAN: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wyoming.
___
Online:
An interactive look at the electoral map: http://interactives.ap.org/2016/road-to-270

How AP rates the presidential race and the Road to 270


A car bomb claimed by al Shabaab Islamist militants killed five soldiers outside the president’s palace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and badly damaged two nearby hotels, police said.
Reuters witnesses said gunfire could be heard after the explosion and a huge cloud of smoke could be seen above the president’s palace, outside which were the remnants of the car and splattered blood.
“A suicide car bomb exploded outside the presidential palace. So far two hotels opposite the palace are partially destroyed,” police officer Major Mohamed Ali told Reuters by phone.
Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for several recent explosions in Mogadishu, including a car bomb and gun attack last week at a popular beach restaurant in the capital that killed 10 people.
“So far we know five government soldiers died in the blast. It exploded outside the SYL hotel which is also just at the checkpoint outside the palace. We believe the target was SYL which is frequented by officials. The death toll may rise,” police officer Colonel Abdikadir Hussein told Reuters.
Al Shabaab’s Radio Andaluz said that the group was behind the attack.
In a separate incident, al Shabaab fighters attacked military bases housing government and African Union troops south west of the capital Mogadishu late on Monday, police and the group said on Tuesday.
Military officer Major Bile Farah said a soldier and two al Shabaab fighters were killed in the attack in K-50 and Muri in Lower Shabelle region,
Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab, said the group’s fighters had killed 10 soldiers and commandeered a vehicle from the Somali government soldiers.
The militants were pushed out of Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM in 2011 but have remained a serious threat, launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the government.
Seeking to impose its own harsh form of Islam, al Shabaab has also launched attacks in Kenya and Uganda which have contributed troops to the 22,000-strong AMISOM force.

Car bomb kills 5 soldiers outside Somali president's palace-police


FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. -- First it was an effort to keep agriculture runoff out of the state's waters by the use of plant buffers, then last week it was a restriction on the use of some pesticides.
Many of Minnesota's farmers and farm organizations are not happy with Gov. Mark Dayton, who began both efforts without what farmers say was adequate consultation. Many say they agree with Dayton's desire to clean up pollution and protect bees, but disagree with how he approaches agriculture-related issues.
"I thought we did involve the farmer," Dayton said at the Minnesota State Fair Tuesday when asked about farmers' complaints.
Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson, a Dayton appointee, said that a 15-member board will advise the administration on how to implement a governor's executive order aimed at reducing the use of pesticides that could hurt bees and other animals that pollinate crops.
The pesticide executive order produced strong reactions from some in farm country, especially House Republicans who Democrat Dayton said get upset with many things he does.
"Once again, instead of collaborating and partnering with farmers and agriculture stakeholders, Gov. Dayton has plowed ahead with his own plan and blindsided everyone in the ag community," said state House Agriculture Finance Chairman Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake, usually one of the least partisan lawmakers. "While we all share a common concern for the health of our pollinators, it is extremely troublesome that when it comes to issues of agriculture, the governor continues to shut farmers out of the process and not engage stakeholders on critical agriculture issues."
An official of the Democratic-leaning Minnesota Farmers' Union was not as harsh, but said his organization also would like more say before farm-related orders are issued.
"We appreciate it when we can be at the table instead of being on the table," said Thom Petersen, Farmers' Union government relations director.
The pesticide controversy piled on top of the buffer issue for farmers, Peterson said. "I think he needs to continue to build a bridge. I think there is a little bit of fatigue out there with the buffer piece."
Petersen watched Tuesday as Dayton asked Minnesotans to pledge to work toward better water quality, including adding buffers between crops and water.
"There is a lot of confusion still, and a lot of things to be worked out," Petersen said about the buffer issue that has been debated for two years.
On the pesticide order, Rep. Deb Kiel, R-Crookston, disagreed with Dayton's "unilateral" executive order.
"This plan will add layers of bureaucracy to farming, an industry essential to the health of our state’s economy," she said.
The Minnesota Soybean Growers Association issued a statement saying Dayton mishandled the pesticide order.
"We are troubled the governor has politicized this issue and didn’t consult with affected producers," association President Theresia Gillie said.
Dayton said Republicans are trying to turn the water quality and pesticide issues into "us vs. them."
He said farm groups will have a seat on the pesticide task force.
A Republican lawmaker, Rep. Paul Torkelson of Hanska, was chief legislative negotiator behind the buffer law that passed in 2015 and was revised this year.


At a time when Democrats and their party are, by virtually every index, moving left, a powerful center-right pressure group within the liberal universe has nonetheless sprung up. Funded by billionaires and arrayed against unions, it is increasingly contesting for power in city halls and statehouses where Democrats already govern.
That’s not how the charter school lobby is customarily described, I’ll allow, but it’s most certainly what it’s become.
Next year, the progressive mayors of America’s two largest and overwhelmingly Democratic cities – New York’s Bill de Blasio and Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti – will each stand for reelection. So far, the only visible challenger to Garcetti’s bid is Steve Barr, founder of the Green Dot charter schools. In New York, de Blasio’s critics have suggested that Success Academy Charter Chief Executive Eva Moskowitz would be the candidate most likely to depose the mayor, though Moskowitz has denied any interest in running.
This abrupt elevation (or self-elevation) of today’s charter school entrepreneurs into tomorrow’s civic leaders may seem surprising, but it’s part of a larger pattern.
In California, political action committees funded by charter school backers have become among the largest donors to centrist Democratic state legislators who not only favor expanding charters at the expense of school districts, but also have blocked some of Gov. Jerry Brown’s more liberal initiatives.
In New York’s upcoming primary, such longtime charter supporters as Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to a PAC seeking to unseat several Democratic legislators who’ve defended the role and budget of traditional public schools.
In future decades, historians will have to grapple with how charter schools became the cause celebre of centrist billionaires – from Walton to Bloomberg to Broad – in an age of plutocracy. The historians shouldn’t dismiss the good intentions behind the billionaires’ impulse: the desire to provide students growing up in poverty with the best education possible. But neither should they dismiss their self-exculpation in singling out the deficiencies, both real and exaggerated, of public education as the central reason for the evisceration of the middle class.
If Wal-Mart, the corporation from which Walton derives her wealth, hadn’t compelled its suppliers to make their products abroad to reduce the price of their goods, more public school students’ parents might have the kind of stable employment and adequate incomes that foster learning-friendly upbringings. Despite the fact that our traditional ladders of mobility – decent blue-collar and service sector jobs, unions, cross-class marriages – have largely collapsed, seemingly sentient billionaires insist that teachers and their unions are the main obstacles blocking young people’s escape from poverty.
The poor, or their tribunes, don’t necessarily agree. In the past couple of weeks, both the Movement for Black Lives (50 organizations active in the Black Lives Matter movement) and the NAACP passed resolutions declaring that charter schools increase segregation and leave school districts with both fewer resources and a more challenging student body. While many in minority communities dispute these views, there’s clearly some real skepticism about the merits of charterizing education among the very people it purports to help.
That’s one reason the Steve Barrs and Eva Moskowitzes aren’t likely to be supplanting their mayors next year. But the charter advocates don’t need to win the high-visibility offices to prevail. By spending sufficiently to shift the composition of Democratic caucuses in legislatures, city councils or school boards to the right, they can undermine public education. Whether they mean to or not, by backing more conservative Democrats, they can also impede unrelated progressive initiatives for greater environmental protections and worker rights. And by making Democratic elected officials even more dependent on the mega-donations of the 1%, they make campaign finance reform all the harder to win.
In their mix of good intentions and self-serving blindness, the billionaire education reformers have much in common with some of the upper-class progressives of a century ago, another time of great wealth and pervasive poverty. Some of those progressives, in the tradition of Jane Addams, genuinely sought to diminish the economy’s structural inequities, but others focused more on the presumed moral deficiencies and lack of discipline of the poor. Whatever the merits of charters, the very rich who see them as the great equalizer are no closer to the mark than their Gilded Age predecessors who preached temperance as the answer to squalor.
Los Angeles Times
Harold Meyerson is executive editor of the American Prospect. He is a contributing writer to Opinion.

How the charter school lobby is changing the Democratic Party


The number of motor insurance claims involving uninsured or untraced drivers jumped by 17 per cent between January and July, according to new figures.
The data show there were 1,644 claims involving such drivers during the first seven months of 2016, up by 235 versus the 1,409 claims lodged during the same period a year earlier.
The Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) figures show 42 per cent of such claims were made in Dublin with the capital also showing a big spike in general claims made compared to last year.
Overall, there were 688 claims recorded in Dublin, up 78 on the 610 claims seen during the first seven months of 2015. The next highest number of claims were in Cork (129) and Galway (92).
Between January and July, claims increased in 20 counties, with the largest percentage change being in Roscommon, which recorded an increase of 500 per cent as the number of claims rose from 2 to 12.
Four counties experienced a decline in the number of claims, the largest drop being in Limerick which had 80 claims, down from 95 in 2015.
The number of claims in Clare and Kildare were the same across both years.
MIBI, which was established by the Government and the insurance industry in the 1950s, pays out approximately €60 million a year on claims involving uninsured or untraced drivers. David Fitzgerald, the body’s chief executive, warned that the jump in claims involving such drivers would likely impact on premiums in the future.
“An increase of 17 per cent represents a significant jump in the number of claims being lodged. It showcases the increased pipeline of payments facing the MIBI. While no sums are yet attached to these claims, unfortunately more claims generally means higher levels of payments coming from the MIBI and ultimately, that will impact on motor insurance premiums,” he said.

Number of claims involving uninsured drivers jumps


Warning of increased premiums as more claims recorded during first seven months


Follow our live updates from across Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring on GCSE results day.
LAUNCH LIVE STREAM: Click here to get involved, post your results, share your news and pictures and have your say on our live feed covering the GCSE results as they come in from across Dacorum.
If you’re collecting your GCSE results today (Thursday August 25), the date will probably mark the first time you’ve ever picked up formal exam results.
The grades you get will provide you with important qualifications and help you progress onto A-levels or further study. There’s no getting away from the fact that it can be a stressful day so it’s good to be as relaxed and ready as you can.
Here is some great advice from The Student Room website on GCSE results day.
Staying calm for GCSE results day 2016
If you’re feeling anxious about results day, try to look after yourself in the days before. When you’re feeling stressed, getting some exercise can help clear your head. It doesn’t have to be a massive gym session - just a quick jog or a brisk walk will do the job.
Look out for what you’re eating as well. Steer clear of junk food and aim for healthy food such as nuts and veggies. It will help keep your blood sugar levels on an even keel and keep your head clear.
With the school routine a distant memory, late nights can easily become the order of the day. But it’s no fun feeling half-asleep on a day when you really need your wits about you. Try to get some early nights in the run-up to results day, so your sleep pattern gets back to normal.
How to prepare for GCSE results day
On the day, make sure you pack your mobile phone so you can give your parents a call after getting your results.
Pro tip: as you reveal your results to them, read the grades from lowest to highest. Pack a bottle of water and some tissues. Make sure you’re not running on an empty stomach, grab a bit of breakfast before you head down to school.
Decide where you want to open your GCSE results
Imagine your best and worst case scenario, and think about whether you’re happy to experience whatever ‘success’ or ‘failure’ means to you on your own or with friends.”
Some students nip off to a toilet cubicle to open their results, others rip them open in front of their friends and teachers. Everyone’s different, so make sure you’re not peer-pressured into opening your results with friends if you’re not feeling comfortable or confident.
It’s best to be somewhere at school to open your results, so you can get advice from your teachers if you need it. But you can always take them home to open them if you prefer.
You might find there’s a photographer from the local newspaper wanting to get snaps of celebrating (and commiserating) students. If you’re camera shy and private, you’ll want to avoid the hustle and bustle. If not, make sure you read our guide to the perfect results day jump to maximise your chances of local paper glory.
Your GCSE grades and how much they matter
When you first look at your list of GCSE results, English language and maths are the key qualifications to look out for. Getting a C or above is great news; at least a C in English and maths GCSEs is often requested as an essential by sixth-form colleges, universities and employers.
If you’ve missed out on the C grade, especially if it’s by a narrow margin, you’ll want to consider applying for a remark or retakes. You’re allowed to retake English and maths in November, with other subjects you’ll have to wait until the following June.
People often find there are one or two subjects where their grades have slipped a little. If that happens to you, try to focus on the positive grades you’ve got. English and maths aside, having one or two poor GCSE grades is not going to hinder you in the future.
If you’ve performed generally under your expectations, again you shouldn’t worry. If you’ve managed to get into your sixth form college of choice, then it’s time to look forward and not to dwell on your results.
And if your results went well: congratulations! It’s time to celebrate, relax and plan for what comes next. Either way, good luck on GCSE results day.


Follow our live updates from across Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring on GCSE results day.


Shoes made for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's wife Melania are seen in shoe factory Bema in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Shoes made for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's wife Melania are seen in shoe factory Bema in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Shoes made for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's wife Melania are seen in shoe factory Bema in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Shoes made for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's wife Melania are seen in shoe factory Bema in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia—A Bosnian Serb factory on Monday, Aug. 29, presented two pairs of shoes as a gift for the wife of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Slovenian-born Melania, in a gesture of support for Trump's White House campaign.
Many Serbs in the Balkans back Trump, ill-disposed to rival Hillary Clinton whose husband Bill backed NATO air strikes on Bosnian Serb positions toward the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He also advocated a 1999 NATO bombing of then-Yugolsavia to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians.
Marinko Umicevic, technical director at the Banja Luka shoe factory Bema, said the gift countered what she called a "dirty campaign" against the aspiring First Lady whose homeland, like Bosnia, was a part of Yugoslavia when she was born.
Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention in July ignited controversy, containing a section strikingly similar to words delivered at the Democratic convention in 2008 by President Barack Obama, Michelle.
"The shoes for Melania Trump are our response to the dirty comments she has been exposed to as a wife and a mother," said Umicevic.
The shoes, to be sent by express post, were displayed for media on a table, set in a display of white roses. One pair was gold-colored, with cushioned soles fashioned, according to Umicevic, to help Melania follow her husband's campaign across America. The others were white stilettos for a triumphant walk into the White House.
Umicevic said the shoe moulds were made by a factory in Melania Trump's hometown of Sevnice and designed by Bema's best shoe designers.
"We hope that America will stop being the world policeman," Umicevic told Reuters. "We are hoping a friendship will come in the future from the United States instead of bombs that Serbs got from Bill Clinton," he added.

Bosnian Serbs make shoes for Melania Trump's White House march


A boy who nearly drowned at the Bowers Park pool is still being treated at Children's of Alabama hospital in Birmingham.
Paramedics with Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue Service and Northstar EMS were called to the pool off Hargrove Road around 3 p.m. Saturday.
Upon arrival, they found the boy, 10, being cared for by a lifeguard next to the swimming pool, said TFRS Deputy Chief Chris Williamson. Fire responders provided emergency medical care at the scene before transporting him to DCH Regional Medical Center. He was later transported to Children's of Alabama in Birmingham, where he was still being treated Sunday night, Williamson said.


A boy who nearly drowned at the Bowers Park pool is still being treated at Children's of Alabama hospital in Birmingham.


A Fargo man bought lottery tickets awarding more than $250,000 at this Oasis C-Store at 209 Wall St. Ave. N.W., Moorhead.Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
MOORHEAD — Just about every day, Steven Jenson buys lottery tickets at the Oasis convenience store on Wall Street Avenue in Moorhead.
Jenson, a 59-year-old Fargo native, says he plays the lottery because he knows it relaxes him. He also knows that winning two separate jackpots worth a total of more than $250,000 is awfully relaxing as well.
"It helps," he said of the money, "puts a lot of stress off everything."
In April 2015, Jenson claimed a prize of nearly $57,000 through the Minnesota State Lottery's Progressive Print-N-Play Bingo game. This month, he won a prize of about $195,000 playing the same game.
Jenson bought both winning tickets at the Oasis store, which earned a $1,000 bonus each time he won. He's since become a known commodity at the Oasis.
"One gal I met at the store where I won asked me if I was married," he said.
Turns out, Jenson was already hitched. And with his first prize, he bought his wife a car and paid off some bills. The rest of the money he put in the bank in case of an emergency.
His second prize was added to that rainy day fund. But Jenson said he's thinking about spending part of the cash on a new truck.
Jenson said he's been playing the bingo game for about three years. Each day, he buys four tickets for a total of $20.
Some back-of-the-envelope math shows that he spent nearly $22,000 on tickets over the course of three years. If that's the case, he's made a nice profit.
"I know I'm ahead," he said. "I've been gambling most of my life. I go to the casino and everything."
Despite his lottery jackpots, Jenson still wakes up before 4 a.m. to unload railcars and load semis at the wholesale lumberyard where he's worked for 20 years.
"I've always said I'm going to work as long as I can, and as long as I can put up with it," he said.
Jenson said he told his boss he'll probably work for another two years. He said some days he feels like retiring right away, but he knows he'd be bored if he wasn't working.
Jenson, who has two children and one grandchild, told The Forum he didn't want his photo published because he's trying to remain somewhat anonymous.
He said he didn't let lottery officials take his photo either. "Because then you're on the screens in every Minnesota store there is," he said. "I don't need that."

In less than two years, Fargo man wins two lottery jackpots totaling over $250,000


Singapore confirms first case of locally transmitted Zika virus
By Marius Zaharia
SINGAPORE, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Singapore has confirmed its first case of a locally-transmitted Zika virus, which has been linked to microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil, the health ministry said.
A 47-year-old Malaysian woman working in the city-state was confirmed with the virus, but was "well and recovering." As she had not travelled to Zika-affected areas recently, she was likely to have been infected in Singapore, the ministry said in a statement.
Three other cases have tested positive in preliminary tests on their urine samples and are due further checks.
Zika was detected in Brazil last year and has since spread across the Americas. The virus poses a risk to pregnant women because it can cause severe birth defects. It has been linked to more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly in Brazil.
Singapore, one of the world's largest financial centres and busiest travel hubs, said it expected more cases of the mosquito-borne virus which has wreaked havoc in Latin America, the Caribbean and beyond.
"With the presence of Zika in our region and the volume of travel by Singaporeans as well as tourists, it is inevitable there will be imported cases of Zika into Singapore," the ministry said.
"There is also risk of subsequent local transmission ... we expect there may be further cases, as most infected persons may display mild or no symptoms."
The ministry said it was screening the patient's close contacts and carrying out tests on others living or working nearby. Clinics have been told to be on the lookout for more cases.
MISTING, FOGGING
The National Environment Agency (NEA) has carried out "vector control" operations to control the mosquito population and deployed 100 officers in the area, the statement said.
Such operations include "ultra-low volume misting of premises and thermal fogging of outdoor areas to kill adult mosquitoes," increasing frequency of drain flushing and oiling to prevent breeding, and public education outreach and distribution of insect repellent.
"NEA may need to gain entry into inaccessible premises by force after serving of requisite notices, to ensure any breeding habitats are destroyed quickly," the statement said.
U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.
The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.
Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans. A small number of cases of sexual transmission have been reported in the United States and elsewhere. A case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion in Brazil has raised questions about other ways that Zika may spread.


By Marius Zaharia SINGAPORE, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Singapore has confirmed its first case of a locally-transmitted Zika virus, which has been linked to microcep...


Singapore confirms first case of locally transmitted Zika virus


LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Latest on reports of a shooter and evacuations at Los Angeles airport (all times local):
10:15 p.m.
Police say no gunman has been found and no shots were fired at Los Angeles International Airport after reports of an active shooter brought a scare to hundreds of travelers.
Los Angeles police spokesman Andy Neiman said Sunday night that the reports were spurred by loud noises only, and police are still investigating to find the source of them.
The reports caused people to pour on to sidewalks and out on to the tarmac at the airport.
Later, people could be seen walking back into the airport and flights starting to take off again.
___
9:40 p.m.
Police say they are searching the terminals and social media posts show many people fleeing Los Angeles International Airport amid rumors of a possible shooting.
Airport police say they are searching terminals on Sunday night, but there is no confirmation of any shootings or injuries.
Scores of people could be seen on social media and on TV news running from the terminal out on to the sidewalks and streets. Many other evacuees are standing on the airport tarmac.
Airport police say traffic to the terminal area has been closed.

The Latest: Police find no gunman at Los Angeles airport


Sergio Aguero and Javier Pastore have pulled out of Argentina’s tie with Uruguay through injury but superstar Lionel Messi has confirmed he will feature for the double World Cup winners, the Argentinian federation announced on Monday.
Aguero injured himself in Manchester City’s 3-1 victory against West Ham at the weekend. He has pulled a muscle in his left calf, according to the AFA’s medical staff.
Paris Saint-Germain’s attacking midfielder Javier Pastore will miss his country’s next two fixtures after tearing his right calf muscle.
However, the AFA have confirmed that former Argentina captain Messi will feature for the south Americans despite rumours that he would have been unavailable after suffering a knock against Athletic Bilbao at the weekend in La Liga.
Messi had announced his international retirement after Argentina had lost in the Copa America final against Chile on penalties, Messi crucially missing his penalty in the shoot out.
The Barcelona star reversed his decision three weeks ago after new Argentina manager Edgardo Bauza payed him a visit in Spain to change his mind.
Argentina host Uruguay in Mendoza on Thursday before travelling to face Venezuela in a second World Cup qualifier on September 6.
AFP

Messi back in Argentina squad, Aguero out


Nigeria news, news in Africa, politics, Entertainment, Sports


A GLITZY ceremony recognising the stars of the Yorkshire tourism industry will have a new home this year, it has been announced.
The White Rose Awards, the UK’s largest celebration of tourism, will take place at the new £11m Hall 1 at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate.
The new Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate.
More than 1,000 guests will enjoy the first awards dinner to be held at the centre’s newly-built exhibition and events hall on November 21.
The ceremony, hosted by Welcome to Yorkshire, will see more than 100 businesses go head to head across 17 categories, more than ever before.
These include gongs for hotels, recognising top customer service and highlighting the winning Taste of Yorkshire.
Colin Mellors, chairman of the White Rose Award judges, said: “Yorkshire’s tourism is a remarkable sector with fantastic hospitality, facilities and produce on offer.
The new Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate.
“Those shortlisted should feel very proud to have been selected against such strong competition. Choosing the eventual winners this year will be a really tough task.”
Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, added: “It is an honour to be hosting the first ever awards dinner at the new events hall at the Yorkshire Event Centre.
“The White Rose Awards always make for a memorable evening, so this year promises to be extra special.”
He said that the entries for the awards had been “exceptional across all categories”.
“The standard of entries just gets better every year, so huge congratulations to all those who have made the shortlist. I look forward to meeting them all in November.
“As the largest celebration of tourism in the UK, the White Rose Awards are a fitting tribute to Yorkshire’s fantastically diverse businesses that work tirelessly to help to make the county number one.”
Last year more than 1,000 people watched Take That superstar Gary Barlow and co-writer of The Girls musical, Tim Firth, being made honorary Yorkshiremen at the awards when they were held at the First Direct Arena in Leeds.
Tickets are now on sale via www.whiteroseawards.com.
Arts and Culture
Huddersfield Literature Festival
Kunsthuis Gallery, Crayke
Swaledale Festival
The Craft Centre and Design Gallery, Leeds
York Theatre Royal
Yorkshire Young Sinfonia
Business Tourism
Lakeside Conference Centre at the National Agri-Food Innovation Campus, Sandhutton
Pavilions of Harrogate
The Camp Hill Estate, Kirklington
The Royal York Hotel
York Conferences
Guest Accommodation
Barnfield House, Sheffield
Cambridge House Countryside Guesthouse, Reeth
Grassfield Hall, Pateley Bridge
Low Mill Guesthouse, Bainbridge
No. 21 York
Stow House, Aysgarth
Holiday Park
Burton Constable Holiday Park and Arboretum, Sproatley
Holme Valley Camping and Caravan Park, Holmfirth
Humble Bee Leisure, Scarborough
Masons Campsite, Appletreewick
Robin Hood Caravan and Camping Park, Slingsby
Weir Holiday Park, Stamford Bridge
Wolds Edge Holiday Lodges, Bishop Wilton
Inns and Restaurants with Rooms
Ellerby Country Inn
Shibden Mill Inn
The Charles Bathurst Inn, Arkengarthdale
The Fairfax Arms, Gilling East
The Star Inn at Harome
Wensleydale Heifer, West Witton
Large Hotel
Gisborough Hall
Holdsworth House Hotel and Restaurant, Halifax
Leopold Hotel, Sheffield
The Coniston Hotel, Country Estate and Spa, Coniston Cold
The Devonshire Arms Hotel and Spa, Bolton Abbey
Wood Hall Hotel and Spa, Wetherby
Large Visitor Attraction
Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth
Cannon Hall Farm, Cawthorne
RSPB Bempton Cliffs
The Forbidden Corner, Coverham
The Wensleydale Creamery, Hawes
Tropical Butterfly House, Wildlife and Falconry Centre, Sheffield
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
Outstanding Customer Service
Bettys Café Tea Rooms, Harrogate
Forest Holidays, Cropton
The 36 bus. Riding Redefined, Harrogate
The Grand Hotel and Spa, York
Yorebridge House, Bainbridge
Tong Garden Centre
Self-catering
Broadgate Farm Cottages, Beverley
Cottage in the Dales, Newbiggin, Leyburn
Dalesend Cottages, Patrick Brompton, Bedale
Elmet Farmhouse, Hebden Bridge
Faweather Grange Lodges, High Eldwick
Smallshaw Farm Cottages, Millhouse Green, Sheffield
Studford Luxury Lodges, Ampleforth
Small Hotel
Feversham Arms Hotel and Verbena Spa, Helmsley
Herriots Hotel, Skipton
The Pheasant Hotel, Harome
The Talbot Hotel, Malton
Grassington House
Small Visitor Attraction
Burton Constable Hall and Grounds, Skirlaugh
National Centre for Birds of Prey, Duncombe Park
National Emergency Services Museum, Sheffield
Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens
The World of James Herriot, Thirsk
Yorkshire Trike Tours, Horsforth
Taste of Yorkshire
Asparagus Green Catering, Overton, Wakefield
Drewton’s Farm Shop, South Cave
High Parks Tearoom, Newton le Willows, Bedale
Keelham Farm Shop, Thornton, Bradford, and Skipton
The Spiced Pear, Holmfirth
Yorkshire Food Finder, Wheldrake, York
Visitor Information
Aysgarth Falls National Park Centre
Bradford Visitor Information Centre
Bridlington Tourist Information Centre
Doncaster Tourist Information Centre
Hebden Bridge Visitor Centre
Humber Bridge Tourist Information Centre
Yorkshire Event
Dale Power Solutions P1 Yorkshire Grand Prix of the Sea
Flying Scotsman’s return to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and National Railway Museum
Frightwater Valley
HallowScream at York Maze
Hebden Bridge Arts Festival
Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival
Yorkshire Producers and Makers
Beaver Furniture, Thirsk
Dalesbred, Settle
Sloemotion, Barton-le-Willows
The Sawley Kitchen, Ripon
Tipple Tails from Wadsley Hall Farm Kitchen, Sheffield
Yorkshire Heart Vineyard and Brewery, Nun Monkton
Yorkshire Pub
The Black Hat, Ilkley
The Chequers Inn, Bilton-in-Ainsty
The Coach and Horses, Harrogate
The Crown and Cushion, Welburn
The Swan and Talbot, Wetherby
Yorkshire Restaurant
1884 Wine and Tapas Bar, Hull
Prashad, Drighlington
The Coach House at Middleton Lodge
The Hare Restaurant, Scawton
The Star Inn the City, York
The Westwood Restaurant, Beverley
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A GLITZY ceremony recognising the stars of the Yorkshire tourism industry will have a new home this year, it has been announced.


Best of Yorkshire tourism to be honoured at 'sparkling' ceremony


Highland Reel: has joint-topweight for BMW Caulfield Cup PICTURE: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)
Topweight deters Order Of St George camp
Australia: Highland Reel and Order Of St George top the weights for one of the Melbourne Spring Carnival highlights, the BMW Caulfield Cup, but the latter is highly unlikely to make the journey.
Weights for the Group 1 handicap on October 15 were released on Wednesday, with the King George VI winner Highland Reel and last season's Irish St Leger victor Order Of St George assigned 58kg (9st 2lb).
But Lloyd Williams, one of the owners of Order Of St George is disappointed with the four-year-old's weight, and said: "I don't think (Ascot) Gold Cup and Irish St Leger form is worth 58 kilograms.
"History says to me - and I have been around the Melbourne Cup for 50 years - that most horses struggle with that weight. Some can run a place but very rarely do they win.
"The only horse in the last 30 years to win with a weight like that (58kg) was Makybe Diva and she was capable of winning three in a row and was a champion."
Last year's runner-up Trip To Paris has 55kg (8st 9lb), the same weight as 12 months ago, while the Melbourne Cup hero of 2015, Prince Of Penzance, has 56.5kg (8st 13lb).


Australia: Highland Reel and Order Of St George top the weights for one of the Melbourne Spring Carnival highlights, the BMW Caulfield Cup, but the latter is highly unlikely to make the journey.


Topweight deters Order Of St George camp


North Dakota Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley is given acres of space to make his strident points about the Standing Rock Sioux's protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The fear-factor rhetoric might have been learned from Donald Trump.
The Herald's editorial down the right-hand side is equally strident in suggesting the Sioux are in violation of the law, and that they essentially should cease protesting. The Sioux don't seem to be given much chance to plead their case that 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day crossing what was once their pristine land might imperil the environment they live in and further erode their quality of life, which seems to have diminished with progressive European in-migration and resource development.
Much of the rest of the country seems to be sympathetic to the Sioux. An Aug. 27 Los Angeles Times feature story describes sympathizers attracted to the protesters' encampment from all over the United States. "For weeks," it says, "they have been arriving from the scattered patches of the United States where the government put their ancestors to protest what they say is one indignity too many in a history that has included extermination and exploitation."
Although the conflict is relatively far to the west of Grand Forks, I think it reinforces that support for the Fighting Sioux at UND was almost wholly about having a cool shirt to wear to a hockey game or around campus. Those who continue to claim to be Sioux fans and to engage in identify theft of the artificial Sioux image are unlikely to show any support for what the real Sioux people now are fighting for.
Richard Shafer
Grand Forks

LETTER: UND Sioux nickname fans don't support what real Sioux are fighting for


Tunisia's new Prime Minister Youssef Chahed takes the oath of office, during the country's new government swearing-in ceremony at Carthage Palace near the capital Tunis on August 27, 2016. By (TUNISIAN PRESIDENCY/AFP)
Tunis (Tunisia) (AFP) - The new Tunisian unity government headed by Youssef Chahed takes office on Monday in the birthplace of the Arab Spring and will have to tackle major economic and security challenges.
At 40, Chahed is Tunisia's youngest prime minister since independence from France in 1956, and the seventh in less than six years since the 2011 uprising that ousted strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
His new cabinet of 26 ministers and 14 ministers of state includes women, "young" and independent ministers, three members of the Islamist Ennahda party and two former members of the powerful UGTT union.
It will formally take office at a 1000 GMT ceremony in Carthage just outside Tunis during which outgoing premier Habib Essid will hand over power.
While Tunisia is considered to be a rare success story of the Arab Spring, the authorities have failed to resolve the issues of poverty, unemployment and corruption that preceded Ben Ali's fall.
A wave of jihadist attacks, including two deadly assaults last year that killed dozens of foreign tourists, have further exacerbated problems in the economy, which relies heavily on tourism revenues.
Analysts say it is too soon to tell if Chahed can restore security and revitalise Tunisia's battered economy which grew by just 0.8 percent last year compared with 2.3 percent in 2014.
"It is difficult to say if this last-minute government will have the time to prove it is efficient," said political analyst Slaheddin Jourchi.
The new Tunisian government won a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday, with 167 out of 217 lawmakers in favour of the line-up of new ministers
"Current indicators give the impression that failure may be closer than success," he said.
The new government won a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday, with 167 out of 217 lawmakers in favour of the line-up.
In a rousing speech to parliament, Chahed spoke of the dire state of the economy and said that "we are all responsible" and "we will all have to make sacrifices".
"If nothing changes by 2017 austerity will follow," he warned.
He also said his government would give priority to fighting corruption and "terrorism".
Chahed was appointed by President Beji Caid Essebsi early this month after lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence in Essid's government following just 18 months in office.
Essid had already been forced into making a sweeping government reshuffle in January, when the country witnessed some of its worst social unrest since the 2011 uprising.
A liberal and member of Essebsi's Nidaa Tounes party, the new prime minister was a local affairs minister before his nomination to the premiership.

Tough tasks ahead for Tunisia's new unity govt


Tunis (Tunisia) (AFP) - The new Tunisian unity government headed by Youssef Chahed takes office on Monday in the birthplace of the Arab Spring and will have to


SA’s Catholic bishops are not convinced by President Jacob Zuma’s stated position that he can’t intervene in the standoff between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Hawks.
While the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) noted Zuma said last week that “he could not bring a halt to the probe even if it was affecting the economy negatively”‚ Bishop Abel Gabuza “insists that the president can and should do more”.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/08/25/Zuma-has-no-power-to-intervene-between-Hawks-and-Gordhan
“We ask the president to intervene in the current impasse in a manner that assures the country that the probe against the finance minister is not politically motivated‚” said Gabuza‚ who chairs the SACBC’s Justice and Peace Commission.
Gordhan snubbed a Hawks demand to present himself at its offices for a warning statement about charges that stem from his time as commissioner of the South African Revenue Service.
The bishops’ concern is the “that current uncertainties around the future of the finance minister and the Treasury are not in the interest of the poorest of the poor”.
“In the context of the current fragile economy‚ and given the enormous hardships that the poor are already facing in our country‚ it is ethically improper of our political leaders to create uncertainties around the Treasury and diminish the country’s ability to avert a credit-rating downgrade that would hurt the poor‚” said Gabuza.
“That is why we are calling on the Presidency and Parliament to do more to intervene in the current crisis around the Treasury.
“The statement that the Presidency issued last week has failed to offer such a high level of assurance. More needs to be done.”
Gabuza stressed that “as church leaders we do not have the competence to determine the merits and demerits of the alleged criminal case against” Gordhan.
Nonetheless‚ said Gabuza: “We strongly caution our political leaders against the use of State agencies and judicial processes to fight their factional battles and advance their narrow interests‚ without regard to its consequences on the economy and the poor.
“As there is a lot at stake for the economy and the poor‚ we ask the president to offer the country a greater level of assurance that the Hawks’ probe against the finance minister was not initiated as a part of a broader ploy to remove the finance minister from office and weaken Treasury’s capacity to fight tender corruption and inefficient governance of state-owned enterprises.” – TMG Digital

Catholic bishops to Zuma: ‘Assure SA that Hawks’ probe of Gordhan isn’t politically motivated’


(CNN) Even with an entire universe to explore, our own solar system is still full of mysteries. Welcome the newest members of our space family, found only recently in the "no man's land" beyond Neptune.
Although they aren't planets, these "extreme objects" hovering on the edge of the solar system just may provide further evidence for one that's rumored to be in our own backyard: Planet Nine.
For those of you who still feel like Pluto is the ninth planet and was unjustly demoted, hang in there. We'll get to that in a bit.
The newly discovered objects are most likely made of methane ice and water ice, mixed with some rock, and average 200 to 400 kilometers in diameter. Other than that, the objects are so faint that, from Earth, theyonly appear as points of light. But the technology used to find them, like telescopes and cameras, has come a long way since such surveys began in 2007.
"It was like looking through a straw at the sky for very rare objects," said Scott Sheppard, extreme object researcher and astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science. But that all changed in 2012. "We went from being able to cover something like a full moon to something that could cover 10 or 12 full moons in a single image. That's why the floodgates have opened for finding these very distant, rare, faint objects."
The extreme objects were only recently observed using two telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, and the researchers have just submitted them to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center for official designations.
Until then, they're stuck with names like 2014 SR349, 2014 FE72 and 2013 FT28, signifying the year they were first observed and a combination of letters and numbers suggesting the time of year. Yeah, those definitely won't be hard to remember in science class.
An illustration of the orbits of the new and previously known extremely distant solar system objects.
Searching for Planet Nine
These discoveries were made by Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo of Northern Arizona University. This team also announced the discovery of an object with the most distant orbit known in the solar system in 2014, known as 2012 VP113 and nicknamed "Biden."
Biden, along with other extreme objects beyond Neptune, showed signs of orbiting together in a cluster. This caused the researchers to wonder why, given the fact that the objects were well beyond the range of being influenced by the orbits of the big planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. What were the objects orbiting?
The researchers believe that there might be a planet 200 times farther from the sun than we are (and five times more distant than Pluto) with an extremely stretched and oblong orbit on the edge of our solar system. It is so massive that it could be as much as 15 times the size of Earth. It's known as Planet Nine or Planet X.
Sheppard and Trujillo, along with David Tholen at the University of Hawaii, are on a quest to find as many faint, distant objects as they can. The more they find, the more they can narrow the area of sky where Planet Nine might be. With current technology, as well as the next generation of telescopes that will have even more capabilities, Sheppard believes that they could definitively say whether Planet Nine exists in the next five years.
This may seem like a while, but keep in mind that historically, it has taken about a century or so to find each planet in our solar system, Sheppard said. "If we do find this planet in the next few years, it would be pretty amazing discovery for astronomy. It's kind of mind-blowing to know that something bigger than the Earth is sitting out there in the solar system and we haven't been able to see it."
So why is this confirmation so difficult? It's the whole forest-for-the-trees concept.
The search for exoplanets around stars outside our solar system uses specific methods. It's like pointing out specific trees with a drone overhead, compared with peering around the trees in our own forest and trying to count them all.
A long time ago, when our solar system was forming, this would have been easier because Planet Nine wasn't always living on the edge. It was probably right in the middle of the planets we know so well, Sheppard said.
A chaotic environment
If Planet Nine exists, it could be the runt of the giant planets, Sheppard said.
"I think one of the biggest things we've realized in the last 10 years is that the giant planets didn't form where we see them today. They actually moved around quite a bit and pushed each other around," he said.
Where massive planets like Jupiter and Saturn exist now, there was a a rich area for forming planets to feed on things like ice. Planets like Neptune and Uranus are smaller because they were pushed away from this region.
Planet Nine was probably forming in that region and grew to be several Earth masses in size, and then it got close to one of the giant planets and was thrown out into the outer solar system, Sheppard said. That would explain its orbit, which wasn't able to form in a neat circle and instead formed in an a chaotic environment.
One of the extreme objects in this discovery is the Oort Cloud, the first to be observed so far away. It was also most likely ejected from the area where planets formed. It is so far out that it is barely bound to the sun gravitationally, and research suggests that this is where comets come from.
But even with these new extreme objects, Pluto is still important and holds a key lesson about the fact that we're still learning the ways of our solar system.
Join the conversation See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.
"People love Pluto," Sheppard said. "It's still the king of its domain. If you want to call it a dwarf planet, it's the biggest dwarf planet known. To me and most astronomers, we're more interested in how it got there, what it can tell us about the solar system and how things form. It's great for kids to understand that we don't know everything. You could become an astronomer and discover really cool things, because we haven't found everything yet.
"And right now," Sheppard said, "it's a golden age for the discovery of these small distant objects that could possibly lead us to this really big object."

Planet Nine search turns up 'extreme objects'


Our solar system is still full of mysteries. Welcome the newest members of our space family, only found recently in the "no man's land" beyond Neptune.


Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 4:44 am |
Turkish troops head to the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Aug. 27. (AP Photo/Halit Onur Sandal)
BEIRUT (AP) - Turkey-backed Syrian rebels seized a number of villages and towns from Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria on Sunday amid Turkish airstrikes and shelling that killed at least 35 people, mostly civilians, according to rebels and a monitoring group.
Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels drive the Islamic State group out of the frontier town of Jarablus last week in a dramatic escalation of its involvement in the Syrian civil war.
The operation, labeled Euphrates Shield, is also aimed at pushing back U.S.-allied Kurdish forces. The fighting pits a NATO ally against a U.S.-backed proxy that is the most effective ground forces battling IS in Syria.
Turkish officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Turkish soldier was killed by a Kurdish rocket attack late Saturday, the first such fatality in the offensive, now in its fifth day.
Various factions of the Turkey-backed Syrian rebels said Sunday they have seized at least four villages and one town from Kurdish-led forces south of Jarablus. One of the villages to change hands was Amarneh, where clashes had been fiercest. Rebels posted pictures from inside the village.
Ankara is deeply suspicious of the Syrian Kurdish militia that dominates the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces, viewing it as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency raging in southeastern Turkey. Turkish leaders have vowed to drive both IS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, away from the border.
The SDF crossed the Euphrates River and drove IS out of Manbij, a key supply hub just south of Jarablus, earlier this month. Both Turkey and the United States have ordered the YPG to withdraw to the east bank of the river. YPG leaders say they have, but their units play an advisory role to the SDF and it is not clear if any of their forces remain west of the Euphrates.
Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS, but the airstrikes that began Saturday marked the first time it has targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombing killed at least 20 civilians and four Kurdish-led terrorists in Beir Khoussa, a village about nine miles south of Jarablus, and another 15 in a village to the west.
ANHA, the news agency of the Kurdish semi-autonomous areas, said Beir Khoussa has “reportedly lost all its residents.”
SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said the airstrikes and shelling started overnight and continued Sunday along the front line, killing many civilians in Beir Khoussa and nearby areas. He said the bombing also targeted Amarneh village. He said 50 Turkish tanks were taking part in the offensive.
Syrian state news agency SANA reported that 20 civilians were killed and 50 wounded in Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes, calling it Turkish “encroachment” on Syrian sovereignty under the pretext of fighting IS. Turkey is a leading backer of the rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.
An Associated Press reporter in the Turkish border town of Karkamis spotted at least three Turkish jets flying into Syria amid heavy Turkish shelling from inside Syrian territory on Sunday morning.

Syrian Rebels Advance on Kurds as Turkish Strikes Kill 35


NEW DELHI — Police in Bangladesh killed three suspected militants Saturday, including a man they identified as a Canadian accused of masterminding a deadly attack on a cafe in Dhaka last month.
Top counterterrorism official Monirul Islam said police raided a two-story house in Narayanganj district near Dhaka and killed the suspects early Saturday.
The dead included Tamim Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi-born Canadian, who police believe was one of two masterminds of the July 1 attack on a popular restaurant in Dhaka that left 20 people dead.
The militants belonged to the banned group Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB, Bangladesh’s police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Hoque told reporters.
Chowdhury was the mastermind of the July 1 attack and another attack on an Eid congregation outside Dhaka on July 7 marking the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, he said.
Bangladesh police have been conducting raids across the country to hunt down those behind the attacks.
The police chief said security officials raided the house acting on a tip that Chowdhury, along with other suspects, was hiding in the building. The suspects opened fire at officials who retaliated, he said.
A SWAT team made the final push and fatally shot the suspects after they failed to surrender. Haque said the team asked them to give themselves up but they went on firing.
The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the restaurant attack, but authorities have denied that all along, saying it was the act of the JMB and that the ISIL has no presence in the Muslim-majority country.
The attack on the upscale Holey Artisan Bakery killed 20 people, including 17 foreigners. The July 7 attack on the prayer gathering north of Dhaka left four people dead, including two police officers.
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement Saturday it is aware of news reports that Chowdhury was killed in Bangladesh.
“Canadian officials are in contact with Bangladeshi authorities to gather additional information,” said Global Affairs spokeswoman Diana Khaddaj in an email. “No further details can be provided at this time.”
Also, the family of a Toronto university student who was detained in Bangladesh after surviving the cafe attack said Friday that the young man had been transferred to prison.
Tahmid Hasib Khan’s family has maintained the 22-year-old’s innocence ever since the July 1 attack.
Khan is a permanent resident of Canada and an undergraduate student studying global health at the University of Toronto.
He had arrived in Dhaka on July 1 to celebrate Eid with his family, and planned to travel to Nepal to begin an internship with UNICEF the following week.
He was with friends at the Holey Artisan Bakery when five gunmen attacked. Security forces stormed the restaurant on July 2, killing the gunmen and rescuing the remaining hostages.
Khan was taken into custody for questioning immediately after the attack, and police formally announced his arrest at the beginning of August.
Part of the narrative around Khan’s case are media reports that quote hostages from the restaurant as saying Khan was ordered to hold a gun during the attack, and that he was photographed doing so.
Global Affairs Canada has said Canadian officials are monitoring Khan’s situation.
With files from The Canadian Press

Bangladesh police kill 3, including Canadian suspect in Dhaka attack


Police in Bangladesh killed three suspected
militants Saturday, including a man they
identified as a Canadian accused of
masterminding a deadly attack on a cafe in
Dhaka last month.


Transit police officer saves man from oncoming train
A New Jersey Transit police officer pulled a man off train tracks seconds before he was hit by a train. According to authorities, New Jersey Transit officer Victor Ortiz climbed down from the platform at the terminal in Secaucus after getting reports of a man lying in the tracks on Friday, Aug. 26, 2016. The officer struggles with the man before eventually pulling him off the tracks. It was not clear why the man was on the tracks and police did not identify him or release his condition.


NESCOPECK — Shortly after Pennsylvania State Police issued an Amber Alert on Friday for an abducted 3-year-old girl, authorities entered the fleeing car’s license plate number into a database linked up to toll plazas.
Police were notified when the license scanned as belonging to the suspect — the girl’s father — entered New York City. An Amber Alert had been sounded across New York as well.
A civilian in New York soon spotted the car, notified a traffic cop and the New York Police Department was summoned to rescue the girl and arrest the father.
“Here he is two states away and, within a few hours, we had him in custody,” said Sgt. James Dunleavy, station commander for state police at Shickshinny, which investigated the abduction. “Because of that (license plate scan) process, we were able to know where he was going. We just had to catch up to him.”
Those involved in triggering the Amber Alert and in rescuing Ava Byrne on Monday said the emergency alert system worked exactly as it should.
“There was great cooperation between the people who coordinate Amber Alert and the other agencies in New Jersey and New York,” Dunleavy said.
Police say they feared Ava was in danger because her father, Robert Byrne, 34, threatened a murder-suicide when he escaped the family’s Nescopeck home shortly after midnight Friday. He is accused of slapping his girlfriend, who is eight months pregnant, in the face and punching her in the stomach prior to fleeing with the girl in a silver Hyundai Elantra.
Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Robert Levan, the state’s Amber Alert coordinator, was scheduled for a day off Friday, but worked the Amber Alert case all day.
“Whenever we have a successful resolution, it’s fantastic,” Levan said. “I was on the phone all day until that child was recovered.”
Levan said there is strict criteria for an Amber Alert to be issued — depending on the level of danger the child is in or whether there is specific information available about an abductor.
Only a select few people in the state police are tasked with vetting and releasing the information, he said.
“We try to avoid desensitizing the public. So when you get an Amber Alert, you know it’s serious,” Levan said.
State police continue to grow their working relationship with partner state agencies like the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Lottery to give a missing child’s photo, as well as a perpetrator’s picture, as much exposure as possible, Levan said. That relationship was developed during the manhunt for alleged cop killer, Eric Frein, he said.
Ava’s photo, her father’s picture, and a detailed description of the getaway car were circulated on billboards, at gas stations and on news websites across three states for a short time on Friday afternoon.
It was only a short time because a civilian in New York spotted Robert Byrne driving his Hyundai with a Pennsylvania license plate in New York City shortly after the Amber Alert was issued there, according to news accounts in New York.
Television station WABC-3 has a detailed report on its website about what occurred. The person who spotted the car notified a city traffic cop.
“I said, ‘Sir, don’t move your car please. Pull over here,’” the traffic cop told the station.
The officer then flagged down NYPD officers, telling them Byrne was now fleeing on foot. They gave chase, caught up to Byrne and took him into custody without incident.
As of Monday evening, Byrne was still being held in New York awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania on charges of simple assault, making terroristic threats and harassment.
Ava’s mother, Morgan, traveled to New York on Friday night to bring her home.
It was another happy ending due to the Amber Alert notification system, instituted in Texas in 1996 following the abduction and murder of a 9-year-old girl. There have been 830 successful recoveries nationwide over the 20 years since the system got its start.
“The program is so successful,” Levan said. “The biggest thing is time. Time is of the essence.”
bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com
570-821-2055, @cvbobkal
Where and why did Amber Alert first start?
The Amber Alert System began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children. It was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered.
Amber stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.
How does it work?
Once law enforcement has determined that a child has been abducted and the abduction meets Amber Alert criteria, law enforcement notifies broadcasters and state transportation officials. Amber Alerts interrupt regular programming and are broadcast on radio, television and highway signs. Amber Alerts can also be re-disseminated through lottery and digital billboards, as well as wireless devices such as cell phones.
How effective has it been?
There have been 830 children rescued and returned specifically because of Amber Alert.
What are the criteria for issuing Amber Alerts?
Each state Amber Alert plan includes its own criteria for issuing Amber Alerts. The PROTECT Act, passed in 2003, which established the role of Amber Alert coordinator within the Department of Justice, calls for the Department of Justice to issue minimum standards or guidelines for Amber Alerts that states can adopt voluntarily.
The Department’s guidance on criteria for issuing Amber Alerts is as follows:
• There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred.
• The law enforcement agency believes that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
• There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an Amber Alert to assist in the recovery of the child.
• The abduction is of a child aged 17 years or younger.
• The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the child abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.
Most states’ guidelines adhere closely to the Department of Justice’s recommended guidelines.
For more information about the Amber Alert system, go to www.amberalert.gov.
SOURCE: Department of Justice, www.amberalert.gov

Amber Alert pivotal in locating abducted child


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ELLEN O’CONNELL / TIMES-SHAMROCK
WILKES-BARRE — Amid a contentious exchange featuring allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and defense ineffectiveness, a Luzrne County judge delivered a stern rebuke to prosecutors for failing to promptly turn over blood evidence and surveillance footage in a murder case that was set to begin Thursday.
Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough found no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct by the team seeking a conviction against Hazleton murder suspect Eleazar Yisrael, but said the trial is off until December “based upon their violation” of the rules of discovery. Prosecutors have 10 days to turn over everything they have, he ordered.
“My job is to protect the rights of everyone involved,” Vough said, noting that the responsibility extends to the prosecution and defense as well as the taxpayers of Luzerne County.
He questioned how the case could move forward with jury selection Thursday when the prosecution, in a court filing the same morning, repeatedly blamed the discovery issues on an “ineffective” defense.
“I want to ensure a fair trial for everyone, and I want to ensure one trial,” Vough said. “I want to ensure it’s done right.”
Yisrael, 30, is accused of fatally shooting Samuel Vacante in the back in his Drums home on Aug. 31, 2015. Prosecutors allege Yisrael, who was romantically involved with Vacante’s wife, tried to clean up the crime scene with bleach before loading the body into Vacante’s vehicle and then ditching it in the woods in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County.
On Wednesday, the eve of the trial, Yisrael’s attorneys filed a motion alleging “prosecutorial misconduct,” saying that prosecutors failed to turn over surveillance video showing Yisrael pumping gas into Vacante’s vehicle the night of the slaying until last week when they also submitted a pair of camouflage pants seized from Yisrael’s home last September to be tested to determine whose blood was on the upper front pant leg.
The 11th-hour revelations left the defense ill-equipped to defend Yisrael during a trial that was supposed to begin with jury selection Thursday, defense attorneys Allyson Kacmarski and Mary V. Deady argued.
Lead prosecutor Assistant District Attorney Dan Zola, joined by his colleagues, Justin P. Richards and Rachael M. Pugh, on Thursday filed a response blaming the defense for failing to make “a simple request to inspect the discovery, a practice that is commonly utilized in cases with high volumes of evidence, particularly homicides.”
The response alleges the defense was, in fact, aware of the evidence and that Kacmarski and Deady were “ineffective” for failing to inspect the evidence or read reports that were generated four months ago.
In court Thursday, Kacmarski alleged she is still waiting to see some exhibits prosecutors identified in court filings, and that there is no excuse for prosecutors’ tardy delivery of a video they got in September.
“A copy of that video should have been provided,” she said.
Queried about the failure, Zola suggested the defense could have examined the video if the attorneys requested to do so. But Vough interjected, saying the rules are clear that surveillance must be turned over as part of discovery.
“Is there any dispute that a video is electronic surveillance?” Vough asked.
“No,” Zola replied.
“It should be turned over to the defense when the discovery request is made,” Vough said.
Zola said the case is replete with video and other electronic evidence, making it difficult for prosecutors to turn everything over immediately. Vough, however, countered that it was nonetheless the prosecution’s burden to turn over the evidence, and to provide the electronic storage devices needed to do so.
Zola conceded the judge was correct, but took exception with the defense claim of prosecutorial misconduct. For the prosecution to be guilty of what the defense alleged, it would have had to have withheld exculpatory evidence, when in fact the video evidence works against Yisrael, he argued.
The defense amended the motion and withdrew the misconduct charge, although Kacmarski maintained prosecutors acted inappropriately.
“I do feel that it was a discovery violation and it was inappropriate,” she said.
The defense also sought to have the pants, which were seized in September, excluded from evidence because the timing of the test now in progress will leave no time to have an independent expert verify the results.
“If the commonwealth came into possession of these pants on Sept. 3, they could have immediately sent them out to the lab,” Kacmarski said. “To wait until the week before the trial to send this item out is unacceptable.”
Zola agreed to exclude the blood information from trial, but Vough opted to continue the entire proceeding. The case is now slated for 9 a.m. Dec. 5, with Vough warning the attorneys he will not lightly delay the matter further.
“This will not be continued unless something happens to this courthouse,” Vough said.

Murder trial delayed after prosecution ‘violation’


Marty Riske, who owns the M.J. Capelli Family Hair Salons, is the Libertarian candidate for governor in North Dakota. Photo by Patrick Springer / Forum News Service
BISMARCK—Some have likely seen them waving from parade floats, spoken to them at public events or gatherings or had a conversation at their doorsteps: Candidates have fanned out across the state to engage in summer retail politics.
Gubernatorial candidates and state party officials say the summer has been a good time to build a foundation as well as momentum. Soon the the post-Labor Day fall election blitz will begin.
"There's one last little pocket — one last weekend at the lake or get the kids ready for school," North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Kelly Armstrong said. "I like being us right now. Complacency is my biggest concern. I think we're in a pretty good spot."
New legislative and statewide candidates have run highly energetic campaigns, a good sign of the party's overall health and strong bench of candidates from which to draw, according to Armstrong.
"It's been abnormally quiet. But maybe that's some sort of strategy?" Armstrong said of the Democrats.
Republicans hold every elected statewide office in the state Capitol, two-thirds majorities in both legislative chambers and two of three seats in the congressional delegation.
The most high-profile statewide race so far is the race for governor, which features Republican Doug Burgum, Democratic-NPL Rep. Marvin Nelson and Marty Riske for the Libertarian Party.
The Republicans have held the governor's office since 1992.
Burgum ran an expensive, high-profile and tough gubernatorial primary fight, emerging with an upset win over Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem.
Since the dust settled, Burgum has spent the summer continuing to build his campaign while mending fences with state officials and party faithful during a campaign that included some negative campaigning at times.
"It's been exciting to see the positive reaction we've received from citizens across the state about our campaign's vision to diversify and transform North Dakota's economy," Burgum said. "From now until Nov. 8, we're going to continue the discussion with voters about balancing our budget, reinventing government and diversifying our economy."
Democratic-NPL Party Chairwoman Kylie Oversen says they've positioned themselves to accomplish a goal she's touted since stepping into the party's top role: focusing on gaining more legislative seats to rebuild the party and increase their bench.
"We've got a really strong slate of candidates that have been working hard for months," Oversen said.
Several candidates are in good shape particularly in the eastern part of the state, said Oversen, adding that their statewide candidates have been making a strong showing as well.
"I think what we've been hearing is that voters have gotten maybe tired of the status quo," Oversen said.
Nelson said getting more visibility on the race is always a challenge given the interest in the presidential campaign.
"It's hard ... with the national reality show on TV every night," Nelson said. "I'm sure I'm probably still not quite where I need to be in terms of visibility."
Plans for the home stretch of the campaign this fall are still being developed, according to Nelson, who said he's drawn a receptive audience to his campaign message about the Republican-dominated state government leaving some of the population behind. Nelson also said budget cuts to human services programs weren't the right decision and the state needs to be more responsive to the public and state workers.
Libertarian Party Chairman Tony Mangnall said the party's strength has reached an all-time high in the state this election cycle due to dissatisfaction with the status quo with the two major political parties.
"We've turned that corner. We're a real party," Mangnall said. "We've been able to use social media — the great equalizer. With as successful as this year's been, it's only looking up."
The party has also seen a jump in volunteers coming forward and getting involved, providing a larger base to draw from and build on after this cycle, Mangnall said.
Riske said he's participated in a few parades across the state this summer, a popular way to conduct on-the-ground politicking in the summer months. He's also been active on social media, debating issues with residents on Facebook.
"Overall, I'm really pleased with it," Riske said of the campaign.
The state budget is a major concern to voters, according to Riske, who said North Dakota hasn't yet fully felt the impacts of the sharp drop in oil production out west despite revenue declines stemming from low oil and agriculture prices.
"We're really in a midst of a perfect storm here, (and) I think we're in a good position," Riske said of his campaign and the Libertarian Party in general.

N.D. gubernatorial candidates building on political foundati...


STOCKHOLM — More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lightning in central Norway.
The Norwegian Environment Agency has released eerie images showing a jumble of reindeer carcasses scattered across a small area on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau. The agency says 323 animals were killed, including 70 calves, in the lightning storm Friday.
Agency spokesman Kjartan Knutsen told The Associated Press it's not uncommon for reindeer or other wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes but this was an unusually deadly event.
"We have not heard about such numbers before," he said Monday.
He said reindeer tend to stay very close to each other in bad weather, which could explain how so many were killed at once.
"I don't know if there were several lightning strikes," he said. "But it happened in one moment."
Knutsen said the agency is now discussing what to do with the dead animals. Normally, they are just left where they fall to let nature take its course, he said.
Thousands of reindeer migrate across the barren Hardangervidda plateau as the seasons change.

Lightning strike kills more than 300 reindeer


STOCKHOLM — More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lightning in central Norway.


Barcelona, Luis Enrique agree to delay new contract talks
MADRID, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Barcelona and coach Luis Enrique have agreed to put off talks on a contract extension until early next year, club President Josep Maria Bartomeu said.
Luis Enrique is in his third season in charge of Barca and recently said he would only consider his future at the end of the campaign when his current deal runs out.
Barca are determined to keep the 46-year-old, who has won eight trophies out of a possible 10 in his two years as coach, beyond next year.
"We will not discuss Luis Enrique's renewal now or at Christmas," Bartomeu told local radio station Catalunya radio.
"The right time will be in February or March as he said that he didn't want to talk about it until the end of the season.
"Now we are thinking about the domestic league and the Champions League."
Luis Enrique, a former Barca player, won the treble in his first season at the Nou Camp and in his second they successfully defended the La Liga title and retained the King's Cup.
Barca are also planning to offer new deals to forwards Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, and midfielder Ivan Rakitic before the end of the year.
Croatian Rakitic is under contract until June 2019, just like Uruguayan Suarez, who scored 40 goals in La Liga last season to win golden boot as Europe's leading scorer for the second time in his career.
Messi is Barca's all-time top scorer and his deal expires in June 2018.
"We will speak to Messi just as we will talk to Suarez and Rakitic," Bartomeu said. "We will do so in the next few months because we want them to renew their contracts."
No player is more precious for Barca than the 29-year-old Messi, who is under contract until June 2018.
"Leo is the world number one," Bartomeu said. "Leo is very strong, he is a winner and he has come back better than ever.


MADRID, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Barcelona and coach Luis Enrique have agreed to put off talks on a contract extension until early next year, club President Josep ...


Barcelona, Luis Enrique agree to delay new contract talks


Trump vows crackdown on immigrants who overstay visas if elected
By Steve Holland
DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump offered fresh details of how he would tackle illegal immigration on Saturday, saying he would crack down on those who overstay their visas as he sought to quiet criticism from conservatives.
In a campaign speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump also cited the shooting death of a cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade to urge African-American voters to rally behind him, calling it an example of violence that has to be addressed.
Trump, speaking on the Iowa State Fairgrounds with hay bales stacked behind him, sought to clarify his views on how to overhaul the U.S. immigration system after saying earlier in the week that he was softening on his plan to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants.
That stance drew fire from conservatives who wanted him to stand fast after he won the Republican presidential nomination in large part by a hardline stance that would include building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
In his speech, Trump said he would seek to institute a tracking system to ensure illegal immigrants who overstay their visas are quickly removed, and would propose an e-verify system to prevent the illegal community from gaining access to welfare and other benefits.
"If we don't enforce visa expiration dates, then we have an open border - it's as simple as that," he said.
In outlining his views, Trump said addressing illegal immigration is important to helping Americans find jobs.
"Every time an African-American citizen, or any citizen, loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that American citizen have been violated," he said. "Equal protection under the law must include the consistent application of our immigration laws."
Trump said his first priority upon taking office next January would be the immediate deportation of thousands of illegal immigrants who remain in the United States despite having committed crimes.
"These international gangs and cartels will be a thing of the past. Their reign of terror will be over. In this task, we will always err on the side of protecting the American people - we will use immigration law to prevent crimes, and will not wait until some innocent American has been harmed or killed before taking action," he said.
He did not explain how his plan would affect many of the illegal community who have been in the United States for decades and obeyed U.S. laws.
Trump said the death in Chicago of Wade cousin Nykea Aldridge, 32, a mother of four, was an example of turmoil in U.S. inner cities. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former chief of staff to Democratic President Barack Obama, has struggled in particular to contain violence in his city.
The incident permitted Trump to bring up again his desire to be a "law and order" president and underscore his drive to appeal to African-American voters who traditionally vote Democratic and overwhelmingly support Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
"It breaks all of our hearts to see it, it's horrible," Trump said. "And it's only getting worse. This shouldn't happen in our country. This shouldn't happen in America. We send our thoughts and our prayers to the family, and we also promise to fight for a much, much better tomorrow."
Trump raised the subject after sending out tweets earlier in the day that prompted charges of insensitivity to the death and accusations he sought to exploit it for political purposes.
The New York businessman was the headline speaker at "Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride," a charity event for military veterans run by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican.


By Steve Holland DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump offered fresh details of how he would tackle illega...


Trump vows crackdown on immigrants who overstay visas if elected