Here is a news article: “When it comes to short-term memory, it seems to work almost the same for all animals. It's a bit surprising that apes do not remember better than rats, but the results are clear. Human memory stands out because it is so susceptible, anything seems to stick in the memory for a very long time,” says Johan Lind, associate Professor of ethology at Stockholm University.

 100 memory experiments

 Researchers at the Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University and Brooklyn College have conducted the study, a meta-analysis of nearly 100 memory experiments on 25 different species. The study shows that animals have different memory systems. Simply put, animals have short term memory and specialised memories. In short-term memory, animals store information about almost anything but the information disappears quickly. Animals also have a variety of specialised memories that, on the one hand, can only store a certain type of information, but on the other hand, the information is stored for a very long time.

 Short term memory and specialised memories

 As an example, one can take a hoarding crow bird that remembers the location of the hidden nuts for months, but the animals have trouble remembering other things in other contexts for even a minute. Specialised memories hold information for a long time, consider for example that animals can remember other individuals, places rich in food, or if certain foods are toxic, for very long time periods. However, memories of events that trigger these specific systems disappear in a matter of seconds or a few minutes. “This seems to apply to all animals except man,” says Magnus Enqvist, Professor of Ethology at Stockholm University.

 Sometime in our prehistory, we developed mental abilities that enabled people to speak, learn to read and build complex societies.

 “Our study helps to better understand how human psychology changed over the past millions of years,” says Stefano Ghirlanda, a professor of psychology at Brooklyn College.

 This is how the experiments were made

 The experiments were analysed, using so-called delayed-matching-to-sample tests, examining short-term memory and starts with an animal may see a stimulus, such as a red dot. The red dot disappears, and after some time the animal may see two stimuli, one of which is the same as the first, while the other is different, for example a black square. The animal is rewarded if it chooses the same stimulus after the break as it saw before the break, in this case the red dot. ||||| We performed a meta-analysis of over 90 data sets from delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) studies with 25 species (birds, mammals, and bees). In DMTS, a sample stimulus is first presented and then removed. After a delay, two (or more) comparison stimuli are presented, and the subject is rewarded for choosing the one matching the sample. We used data on performance vs. delay length to estimate two parameters informative of working memory abilities: the maximum performance possible with no delay (comparison stimuli presented as soon as the sample is removed), and the rate of performance decay as the delay is lengthened (related to memory span). We conclude that there is little evidence that zero-delay performance varies between these species. There is evidence that pigeons do not perform as well as mammals at longer delay intervals. Pigeons, however, are the only extensively studied bird, and we cannot exclude that other birds may be able to bridge as long a delay as mammals. Extensive training may improve memory, although the data are open to other interpretations. Overall, DMTS studies suggest memory spans ranging from a few seconds to several minutes. We suggest that observations of animals exhibiting much longer memory spans (days to months) can be explained in terms of specialized memory systems that deal with specific, biologically significant information, such as food caches. Events that do not trigger these systems, on the other hand, appear to be remembered for only a short time.

 This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: In Honor of Jerry Hogan. ||||| James Owen

 National Geographic

 Published February 26, 2015

 The next time your dog happily greets an old friend, remember this: Your pup likely can't remember the last time they met.

 We often say someone has "a memory like an elephant," or, if it's a forgetful person, "a goldfish." But in comparing our memory with that of animals, what's the truth? (Read "Animal Minds" in National Geographic magazine.)

 A recent investigation of short-term memory suggests animals don't remember specific events much at all—instead, they store away useful information about what could help them survive.

 Covering 25 species that ranged from dolphins to bees, the study found the average short-term memory span of animals was 27 seconds (which was the midway point before the memory is lost), according to a team led by Johan Lind, an ethologist at the Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University, Sweden. (See "Dolphins Have Longest Memories in Animal Kingdom.")

 Dogs forget an event within two minutes. Chimpanzees, at around 20 seconds, are worse than rats at remembering things, while the memory spans of three other primates—baboons, pig—tailed macaques, and squirrel monkeys—exceeded only bees (the sole study participant that wasn't either a mammal or a bird).

 Since chimps are our closest living relatives, Lind said he was surprised by their poor performance. It suggests human capacity for memory evolved after we branched from the most recent shared ancestor with chimps, over six million years ago.

 Reported in late 2014 in the journal Behavioural Processes, the findings drew on data from almost a hundred studies of captive animals that used a memory test of recent random events known as the delayed matching-to-sample (or DMTS) method.

 In this test, an animal is typically shown a visual stimulus such as a red circle. The red circle disappears, then, after a delay, it's shown again with another sample stimulus—a blue square, say. The animal, usually with the incentive of a food reward, has to select the original sample it saw.

 Compared with animals, humans find this type of test a breeze—we pick the correct sample effortlessly after 48 hours or more, studies have shown. (Also see "A Message From Your Brain: I'm Not Good At Remembering What I Hear.")

 "The data tell us that animals have no long-term memory of arbitrary events," Lind said. Based on the new study, "we think humans' ability to remember arbitrary events is unique."

 Memories Not Created Equal

 This ability is also called episodic memory, and it allows us to remember almost any occurrence, however trivial, for long periods.

 "We experience this daily when we remember where we parked the car or that we have to pay a bill next week," Lind said.

 While there are plenty of examples of animals with long memories—elephants never forgetting a face, the cat that's scared of the pet carrier after a past visit to the vet, swallows returning to last summer's nest—they aren't using episodic memory, according to Lind.

 Such cases "are due to associative memories," he says. They're not based on "memories of specific events. In the second case, the cat associates the carrier with danger. Such memories are very robust and will stay for a long time—for life—in animals."

 That's because animals may have specialized memory systems hardwired to remember certain "biologically relevant information" (such as where to find food), the study authors proposed.

 Take the example of the western scrub jay, a food-caching bird whose ability to remember and choose between its buried stores has been reported as evidence of episodic-like memory in animals. (See "Bird-Brained Jays Can Plan for the Future.")

 But, said Lind, "if these scrub jays had an episodic memory, as humans do, they would have no problem solving the matching-to-sample experiment."

 The scrub jays' performance in the experiment is really no different than that of other birds, however. Their "memory will decay within half a minute," he said. (See pictures of animals that are smarter than you think.)

 Photograph by Vicent J. Musi, National Geographic

 Mental Time Travel

 Scientists see this memory distinction as key to trying to understand what mental skills we share with other animals and what's unique about the human mind. (Read about the amazing human memory in National Geographic magazine.)

 "The study of episodic memory is crucial, since it is still under debate whether other animals can retrieve memories of personal past events in the same way humans do," Gema Martin-Ordas, who studies animal and human cognition at Newcastle University's Institute of Neuroscience in England, said in an email.

 "For example, I remember that I went for a run to the park yesterday, and I am perfectly aware that this memory is part of my personal past experience," said Martin-Ordas, who wasn't involved in the new study.

 Given our current knowledge, however, "it might be too early to argue that humans are the only ones who are able to mentally travel back and forward in time," she added. (See this interactive: "Mapping Memory in 3-D.")

 Martin-Ordas's own research has found evidence that great apes do remember episodic-like details for days and even years, noted Victoria Templer, a psychologist at Providence College in Rhode Island.

 Both researchers urged caution in interpreting the results of the new study.

 As the study authors themselves observed, "some species or individuals might adjust well to a laboratory environment, and some may not," Templer said.

 For instance, it could be that chimpanzees recollected worse than rats in the DMTS experiments because the rats had more training in the memory task.

 But if the short-term memory spans of chimps and other primates really are as mediocre as the DMTS tests indicate, "the study reminds us that evolution is not a unidirectional ladder of improvement with humans at the top and apes close behind," Templer said.

 That's something for us humans to remember—we might not be as smart as we like to think. |||||
A summary of this is?

– When it comes to short-term memory, animals have very short ones indeed. A new meta-analysis examined more than 90 memory experiments carried out on 25 species encompassing birds, mammals, and bees. Researchers at Stockholm University and Brooklyn College found that for dogs, events are forgotten after about two minutes—and that's on the long end of the spectrum. The average memory duration for all animals studied is 27 seconds, with chimps' memory as short as 20 seconds; that's a length of time that rats beat, reports National Geographic. Humans subjected to similar studies have had no problem remembering a sample stimulus they had seen as many as two days prior. In fact, based on these findings, "we think humans' ability to remember arbitrary events is unique," one researcher says. Animals' memories can be broken into two categories—short-term and longer-term "specialized" memories, reports the University of Stockholm. And while animals can have excellent specialized memories (think birds remembering the exact locations of previous nests), memories of specific events tend to disappear in a span "ranging from a few seconds to several minutes," per the researchers' findings, published in December in Behavioural Processes. That said, one researcher not involved in the study pointed out that some animals have shown the ability to capture episodic memories the way humans can—great apes have been shown to do so for days, if not years—while another cautioned that "it might be too early to argue that humans are the only ones who are able to mentally travel back and forward in time." (Dolphins, meanwhile, can recall whistles 20 years later.)


Summarize this article:

The White House has formally invited members of Congress to President Barack Obama's bipartisan health care meeting on Feb. 25.

 The invitation from Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was sent Friday afternoon to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Rep. John Boehner, the top Republican in the House, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

 McConnell issued a statement Friday evening saying that "As we have over the past year, Republicans will continue to offer the types of ideas and step-by-step approach that Americans are calling for." While the letter laid out an agenda for the meeting, McConnell said that "we will consult with the White House about the proposed format and topics in order to maximize the effectiveness of the meeting." Most Republicans have yet to commit to the meeting, but Obama has invited House and Senate leadership, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of relevant committees (full list here ). He's also asked Pelosi, Reid, Boehner and McConnell to each choose another four members and one staffer specializing in health care policy to attend the meeting.

 "This leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Are they excluding governors, state legislators, CBO, and rank-and-file congressional Democrats who have opposed Obamacare and are the reason the president hasn't had a bill to sign? Are Congressional Democrats still working behind closed doors with White House support on a 'pre-negotiated package' that can be rammed through Congress after the summit via legislative tricks? Or are they willing to start over with a blank sheet of paper?" said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. "We need answers before we know if the White House is more interested in partisan theater than in facilitating a productive dialogue about solutions."

 The White House plans to post online the bill that Republicans have said needs to be scrapped in order for them to come to the negotiating table.

 "Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package," the invite says. "It is the President’s hope that the Republican congressional leadership will also put forward their own comprehensive bill to achieve those goals and make it available online as well."

 The legislation that will be posted online is a "product of the discussions between the House and Senate," a White House official said, adding that Democrats are still working to bridge the differences between the two bills, and the end result is what will ultimately be posted online. The official said more details will be released going forward.

 The invitation lays out the meeting agenda: Obama will deliver opening remarks, it explains, then hand the mic off to "a Republican leader chosen by the Republican leadership and a Democratic leader chosen by the Democratic leadership."

 "The President will then open and moderate discussion on four critical topics: insurance reforms, cost containment, expanding coverage, and the impact health reform legislation will have on deficit reduction," says the invite.

 The invite also nudges back against GOP complaints that Obama did not make good on his campaign pledge to air health care negotiations on C-SPAN - a criticism that Obama has said is legitimate.

 In highlighting the efforts over the past year to craft health care legislation, the invitation points out that "there have been hundreds of hours of committee hearings and mark-ups in both the House of Representatives and Senate, with nearly all of those sessions televised on C-SPAN."

 "The Blair House meeting is the next step in this process," the invitation says. "The session will begin at 10:00 a.m. and be broadcast live in its entirety."

 Joining Obama at the meeting from the White House will be Vice President Biden, Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the Office of Health Reform, Sebelius and a representative from the Office of Management and Budget.

 The congressional invite list and the full letter are below:

 Senator Harry Reid, D-NV, Majority Leader

 Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY, Republican Leader

 Senator Richard Durbin, D-IL, Majority Whip

 Senator Jon Kyl, R-AZ, Republican Whip

 Senator Max Baucus, D-MT, Chairman of the Finance Committee

 Senator Chuck Grassley, R-IA, Ranking Member of the Finance Committee

 Senator Tom Harkin, D-IA, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

 Senator Mike Enzi, R-WY, Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

 Senator Christopher Dodd, D-CT, Member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee

 Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA

 Representative Steny Hoyer, D-MD, Majority Leader

 Representative John Boehner, R-OH, Republican Leader

 Representative James Clyburn, D-SC, Majority Whip

 Representative Eric Cantor, R-VA, Republican Whip

 Representative Charles Rangel, D-NY, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee

 Representative Dave Camp, R-MI, Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee

 Representative Henry Waxman, D-CA, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee

 Representative Joe Barton, R-TX, Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee

 Representative George Miller, D-CA, Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee

 Representative John Kline, R-MN, Ranking Member of the Education and Labor Committee

 Representative John Dingell, D-MI, Chair Emeritus of the Energy and Commerce Committee

 ---

 Dear Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Boehner:

 We are writing to ask that you join President Obama for a bipartisan meeting at the Blair House on February 25 to discuss health reform legislation.

 We have seen again in recent days that when it comes to health care, the status quo is unsustainable and unacceptable. The proof is right in front of us: just last week, a major insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, announced plans to increase premiums for many of its policyholders in California by as much as 39 percent on March 1.

 As the President noted this week, if we don’t act on comprehensive health insurance reform, this enormous rate hike will be "just a preview of coming attractions. Premiums will continue to rise for folks with insurance; millions more will lose their coverage altogether; our deficits will continue to grow larger."

 Now is the time to act on behalf of the millions of Americans and small businesses who are counting on meaningful health insurance reform. In the last year, there has been an extraordinary effort to craft effective legislation. There have been hundreds of hours of committee hearings and mark-ups in both the House of Representatives and Senate, with nearly all of those sessions televised on C-SPAN. The Senate spent over 160 hours on the Senate floor considering health insurance reform legislation and, for the first time in history, both the House of Representatives and Senate have approved comprehensive health reform legislation. This is the closest our Nation has been to resolving this issue in the nearly 100 years that it has been debated.

 The Blair House meeting is the next step in this process. The session will begin at 10:00 a.m. and be broadcast live in its e ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||

– The White House today sent out invitations for its Feb. 25 health-reform summit, detailed the format for the televised proceedings, and said it would post its own proposal online ahead of time. The leaders of both parties in the House and Senate are on the list, and tasked with choosing more legislators to bring along. Per the plan—of which Republicans have been suspicious and say might keep them from attending—the event will kick off with President Obama and a member of each party speaking. Then, according to the letter from White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Health secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Obama “will then open and moderate discussion on four critical topics: insurance reforms, cost containment, expanding coverage, and the impact health reform legislation will have on deficit reduction.” The GOP has many questions, a spokesman tells Politico. “We need answers before we know if the White House is more interested in partisan theater than in facilitating a productive dialogue about solutions.”


News article:

The family of a teen survivor of last month's shooting spree Kalamazoo, Michigan, has posted the first photo of her as she continues to recover.

 Abigail Kopf, 14, was one of eight people injured during multiple shootings that left six dead. Accused shooter James Dalton, an Uber driver, has been arrested and charged with murder.

 Abigail's injuries were so severe that her heart stopped and her medical team was concerned she might become brain dead, according to Bronson Children's Hospital, where she was treated.

 Today, the family posted the first picture of Abigail since the shooting. Shown in a hospital bed with her sister and surrounded by stuffed animals, the teen smiles for the camera, seemingly in good spirits. The picture comes days after she was able to finally speak again, according to her family.

 "This little girl loves her pig named Hamlet," her family said in an online post on a fundraising site. "Tonight, Abbie spoke her first word. It was 'pig.'"

 "This gives us great hope that she will regain her speech. Let's hear it for our Warrior!" the family said online.

 Abigail has been making progress since being injured in the shooting, according to updates from her family. Last week, she was released to a rehab facility, where she will continue her recovery.

 The girl's injuries were so severe that Gift of Life, an organ and tissue donor organization, was contacted with the permission of Abigail's parents, but Abigail was never declared medically brain dead, according to the doctor.

 The teen had been at a concert with her family when she was injured. Her grandmother was killed in the shooting, authorities said. A judge has denied bail for Dalton, 45. Kalamazoo police Det. Cory Ghiringhelli told the court that Dalton admitted to investigators "that he took people's lives."

 ABC News' Emily Shapiro contributed to this report. ||||| 2 2 2 people like this donation $ 50 50 Gary Simoneau 1 day ago

 Abigail - I can tell from the updates that you are not only a survivor but a fighter - you have a beautiful name - my wife and I have 2 daughters who we treasure deeply - Angela and Ashley! We hold a special place for girl's names that begin with "A" - Thank your parents! You have many friends and family for support and people you didn't know before that are praying for you - You are destined to do great things - embrace it and learn that despite this tragedy there is much love and hope in your future and the world we live in. May God bestow upon you and your family his blessings for your courage and strength to continue your path in life. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The 14-year-old victim of the Kalamazoo shooting rampage who was thought to be dead until she squeezed her mom's hand has now said her first word since the shooting. "This little girl loves her pig named Hamlet. Tonight, Abbie spoke her first word. It was 'pig,'" Kopf's dad said per a recent GoFundMe update. The campaign has so far raised almost $60,000 for Kopf's expenses. Kopf, whose grandmother was killed in the Michigan shooting spree, was released from the hospital to a rehab facility last week, ABC News reports. On Sunday, her family posted the first picture of her since the shooting to the GoFundMe page. It shows her in a hospital bed, laughing, with her little sister and a number of stuffed animals. Previous updates on the crowdfunding site reveal that Kopf can walk with some assistance and often laughs with her family.


Article:
The premiere party for the movie "Burlesque" was just the sort of glitzy Hollywood affair that Ronni Chasen, a veteran movie publicist, loved, and as she had for four decades, she worked the room with relish. As celebrities, including Jane Fonda and the film's stars Cher and Christina Aguilera , mingled around a rooftop pool, Chasen moved among the revelers with a songwriter whose work she was promoting.Ronni Chasen: An article in the Nov. 17 Section A about the fatal shooting of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen in Beverly Hills incorrectly described a witness who heard gunshots. Nahid Shekarchian is a 33-year resident of the neighborhood, not 33 years old. The article also misspelled the last name of publicist Stan Rosenfield as Rosenfeld. —"She was happy-go-lucky and gossipy and fun, just like she always was," said Jim Dobson, a publicist who crossed paths with Chasen around midnight.Less than an hour and a half later, Chasen was dead, gunned down in her Mercedes in an assault that baffled police and made a woman who spent her career touting others, the talk of Hollywood. When word of the slaying broke, some studios canceled meetings and conference calls that had been scheduled to strategize their Oscar campaigns — Chasen's specialty. One publicist set up a reward fund and others closed their offices for the day."I'm devastated by this," said Academy Award-winning producer Richard Zanuck , who had worked with Chasen since 1982 and had talked to her earlier in the day about the awards season campaign for his movie "Alice in Wonderland."Detectives with the Beverly Hills Police Department spent Tuesday trying to piece together the final minutes of Chasen's life and discern a motive for the killing of a 64-year-old single woman who, according to friends, had no enemies."She was not a drinker. She never did drugs…. She had solid, really nice people as clients who became sort of her family," said New York publicist Kathie Berlin, a friend of 45 years.Chasen attended the movie premiere and after party with client Diane Warren , who wrote the song "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" for the "Burlesque" soundtrack. Sometime after midnight, she steered her new E350 sedan away from the W Hotel in Hollywood, apparently en route to her Westwood condominium. At 12:28 a.m., residents of Whittier Drive, a quiet, tree-lined street often used as a cut through between Sunset and Wilshire boulevards, heard gunshots.Nahid Shekarchian, 33, said she was in her house on Whittier when she heard gunshots — "boom-boom-boom" — and opened the curtain of her upstairs bedroom to see a Mercedes crashed into a light pole. Shekarchian rushed to the car and peered through the shattered passenger's side window. She said she saw Chasen in the driver's seat bleeding profusely from her head and chest.Another neighbor, she said, walked to the window and asked, "Can I help you?" Shekarchian said Chasen was breathing "very heavily" and did not respond.Chasen was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 1:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said she sustained multiple gunshot wounds to her chest.Shekarchian told police she didn't see anyone else in the vicinity. She said officers told her that the perpetrator might have been on foot.Beverly Hills police fanned out across the Westside on Tuesday in search of clues. Officers were seen removing computer hard drives, compact discs and file boxes from her luxury high-rise apartment. Investigators also searched her company, Chasen & Co., in West Hollywood. Police declined to say whether any of Chasen's belongings were missing from the vehicle.Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Lincoln Hoshino said the investigation remained open. Detectives were pursuing a range of possible scenarios, including one in which the perpetrator followed Chasen home from the hotel and another in which she was the victim of road rage."We don't know what the motive is," Hoshino said. "This is a fresh, active investigation."Asked whether officers were reviewing video surveillance from businesses or the many mansions Chasen would have passed on her drive along Sunset, Hoshino said, "The department will conduct a thorough investigation and that will be part of it."Investigators were questioning Chasen's friends and associates, many of whom had seen and talked to her in the hours before her death. Vivian Mayer-Siskind, a close friend for many years, said Chasen's employees told her that Chasen had called the office from her cellphone at 12:22 a.m. — six minutes before she was shot — leaving a to-do list for the following day on an answering machine."That was typical of Ronni," said Mayer-Siskind, referring to what she described as her tireless work ethic. ||||| Sponsored Links

 (Nov. 16) -- Beverly Hills, Calif., police found the body of famed publicist Ronni Chasen, 64, inside her black Mercedes Benz E-350 when they arrived at the scene of a car crash early Tuesday monring. But it wasn't an ordinary car crash: Chasen's body was riddled with multiple gunshot wounds, the Hollywood Reporter said Police said they received calls about a car collision at around 12:30 a.m. and soon received more calls about gunshots. Emergency units arrived at the scene to find Chasen alone inside the Mercedes, which had crashed into a light poll. Details about Chasen's last hours are starting to emerge as police continue to track down the killer and determine a motive in the shooting.This week marks the beginning of the busy Oscar campaign and holiday movie season, and the publicist was in full swing, Deadline Hollywood reported Just hours before her death, Chasen was busy helping out clients at the red-carpet premier of "Burlesque" at Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. At the same time, she was hard at work lobbying for Oscar bids: "Alice In Wonderland 3D" for best picture and Michael Douglas for best supporting actor for "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."According to Deadline, Chasen attended the premier of "Burlesque" and went directly to a party at the W Hotel. She left the party and drove down Sunset Boulevard in direction of her home in Westwood, but died before she could get there.The Los Angeles Times reported that Chasen showed no signs of distress at the premier or at the after party."She was happy-go-lucky and gossipy and fun, just like she always was," fellow publicist Jim Dobson said. "We talked about food and life, just normal things. There wasn't any sign of stress."Police found Chasen's car in the area of Sunset and Whittier, Deadspin reported. According to the site, police sources said that the car's driver-side window was broken and nothing was taken from Chasen's purse. RadarOnline.com reported that she was shot five times in the chest. She was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center but was pronounced dead.Police have yet to name a suspect in the shooting, but those close to Chasen question how anyone could kill such a beloved colleague and friend.Over her decades-long career, Chasen represented a number of Hollywood heavy-hitters, including the late actress Natalie Wood, composer Hans Zimmer, director John Schlesinger and actor Michael Douglas, the LA Times reported.Chasen had been serving as senior vice president of worldwide publicity at MGM, where she was appointed in 1993, and also headed up her own public relations firm, Chasen & CoThe company has promoted such films as "An Inconvenient Truth," "Slumdog Millionaire," "No Country for Old Men" and "The Lord of the Rings."According to MGM executive Ashley Boone, Chasen was "one of the most respected publicity executives in the business" with "strength and expertise in developing, positioning and executing productive motion picture campaigns," RadarOnline reported.An MGM press release cited Chasen as being active in a number of charities, including the the Big Sisters of Los Angeles. She was also a member of the AFI 3rd Decade Council, Women in Film, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served on the board of the USA Film Festival in Dallas. |||||Summary:

– A real-life murder mystery is stumping police in Beverly Hills. Longtime Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, 64, was found in her Mercedes with five gunshot wounds early yesterday morning. She died shortly afterward. Chasen was apparently driving when she was shot, and her car crashed into a light pole on Sunset Boulevard following the attack, police said. Earlier that night, Chasen attended the premiere and after-party for the movie Burlesque. The murder has sent shockwaves through Hollywood, and detectives say they haven't yet been able to find any hint of a motive. "She was not a drinker. She never did drugs," a New York publicist and longtime friend of Chasen's tells the Los Angeles Times. "She had solid, really nice people as clients who became sort of her family." Chasen, who specialized in Oscar campaigns, worked on promoting more than 100 movies during her long career, including On Golden Pond, Driving Miss Daisy, The Hurt Locker, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Click here for more details.


Article:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Earlier today, Governor Scott called on State Attorney Ayala to recuse herself immediately from prosecuting Markeith Loyd after she refused to consider the death penalty in this case. State Attorney Ayala has refused to recuse herself and Governor Scott has removed her from the case and reassigned it to State Attorney Brad King.

 Governor Scott said, “Earlier today, I called on State Attorney Ayala to immediately recuse herself from this case. She informed me this afternoon that she refuses to do that. She has made it clear that she will not fight for justice and that is why I am using my executive authority to immediately reassign the case to State Attorney Brad King.

 “Let’s remember, Markeith Loyd is accused of executing a brave law enforcement hero and murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon. Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Norman Lewis was also killed while actively searching for Markeith Loyd following these heinous murders. I am outraged and sickened by this loss of life and many families’ lives have been forever changed because of these senseless murders. These families deserve a state attorney who will aggressively prosecute Markeith Loyd to the fullest extent of the law and justice must be served.”

 Click here to see the Executive Order removing State Attorney Ayala from the case.

 Click here to see the Governor’s statement earlier today on State Attorney Ayala’s comments.

 ### ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Greetings from Day 8 of the legislative session in Tallahassee, where bills are moving, lobbyists are lobbying and the death penalty is back in force.

 Rick Scott may kill again: The state's all-time gubernatorial death-sentence record holder (at least as long as we've been keeping track, anyway) can now pad his lead as Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that will reinstitute the death penalty in Florida. The Orlando Sentinel's Gray Rohrer explains why Florida's death penalty law went off the rails and what the new law does to get it back on track.

 No sanctuary: A House committee has passed a bill filed by state Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha (pictured), that would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities, local governments that provide safe haven for immigrants who enter the country illegally. The bill could have serious implications for Broward County, which was listed as a sanctuary county in legislative staff analysis of the bill, despite the protestations by the county that it is not, nor has it ever been, a sanctuary county. For more, check out my story on the bill and what it would do.

 Don't forget to vote ... It's municipal election day for many cities in South Florida. The South Florida News Service's Zue Lopez Diaz provides everything you need to know to participate. Plus, for more on the candidates and races, check out our voter guide. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board has also made its endorsements in the races.

 ... just make sure to fill out your own ballot ... The Palm Beach Post's Lawrence Mower, Lulu Ramadan, Alexandra Seltzer and Justin Price have produced an explosive investigative piece showing that Palm Beach County Commissioner Mack Bernard and state Rep. Al Jacquet, D-Delray Beach, went into people's homes and hovered over them while they filled in mail-in ballots, in one case even helping a blind man fill out his ballot. Both Bernard and Jacquet lost the in-person Election Day vote but overcame that due to the incredible number of mail-in ballots that broke their way. And the best part? None of this is illegal.

 ... that is, of course, if you're allowed to vote: A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Gov. Rick Scott over the state's system for getting voting rights back to felons. In Florida, felons lose the right to vote for life unless that right is given back to them by the state. The lawsuit doesn't argue that process is itself unconstitutional, but rather that the process by which the rights are given back is capricious, with no standards that give equal opportunity to all felons attempting to have their rights restored. The Orlando Sentinel's Steven Lemongello has more on the lawsuit. For a refresher on the odyssey felons have to go through to get their voting rights back in Florida, check out my story on the subject.

 FPL Uh-Oh: State Sen. Frank Artiles had to update his political committee's expenditures to reflect $2,000 in unreported in-kind contributions from Florida Power and Light following reporting by The Miami Herald's Mary Ellen Klas. He has since asked that Klas put all further questions in writing.

 In Trump World: Let's head up to D.C. for the latest in health care and wiretaps.

 MEANWHILE, IN THE TWITTERVERSE ...

 Meanwhile, in Florida... #SnowDay #LoveFL

 ≥140 CHARACTER HOT TAKE: All right, Visit Florida, how much are you paying Big Sno-Cone? ||||| Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Fla. Gov. Rick Scott has moved the first-degree murder case of Markeith Loyd after State Attorney Aramis Ayala decided not to seek the death penalty. USA TODAY

 In a news conference on the steps of the Orange County (Fla.) Courthouse, State Attorney Aramis Ayala announces Thursday, March 16, 2017, that her office will no longer pursue the death penalty as a sentence in any case brought before the 9th Judicial Circuit of Florida. (Photo: Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel via AP)

 MELBOURNE, Fla. — Florida's governor moved the case of a man accused of fatally shooting a police officer to another state attorney Thursday after the initial prosecutor said she wouldn't seek the death penalty in any cases.

 Gov. Rick Scott transferred the first-degree murder case of Markeith Loyd out of the hands of Orange County's 9th Circuit Attorney's Office. The case was reassigned to a prosecutor in a neighboring district.

 Loyd, 41, is charged with murder in the separate shooting deaths of his pregnant ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon in December and Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton in January.

 Investigators say Loyd shot and killed Clayton during a Jan. 17 confrontation in a Walmart parking lot. Loyd was captured after an intensive, nine-day manhunt.

 Related:Orlando police shooting suspect spouts expletives at judge

 State Attorney Aramis Ayala's decision came just days after Scott signed a bill requiring a unanimous jury recommendation before the death penalty can be imposed.

 Ayala said there is no evidence of improved public safety for citizens or law enforcement with the death penalty, and that such cases are costly and drag on for years.

 “I have given this issue extensive, painstaking thought and consideration,” Ayala said at a news conference Thursday. “What has become abundantly clear through this process is that while I do have discretion to pursue death sentences, I have determined that doing so is not in the best interests of this community or in the best interests of justice.”

 Ayala's decision not to seek the death penalty drew heavy criticism from the criminal justice community.

 Orlando Police Chief John Mina said in a statement that he was "extremely upset."

 "The heinous crimes that he (Loyd) committed in our community are the very reason that we have the death penalty as an option under the law," said Mina.

 "It is up to each state attorney to decide how they will handle each and every criminal case that comes before them," said Brevard State Attorney Phil Archer in a prepared statement. "As state attorney, we are granted immense power and broad discretion to make those decisions even if those decisions are unpopular or subject us to criticism.

 Related:Orlando police: Accused police killer Markeith Loyd captured

 "However, I do not agree with the conclusions about the death penalty that State Attorney Aramis Ayala has made in her statement today. ... I want to make it clear to my community that I will continue to seek the death penalty in those cases that I believe are appropriate and where justice demands the ultimate sentence."

 In transferring the case to another prosecutor, Scott said in a statement, "I am outraged and sickened by this loss of life and many families' lives have been forever changed because of these senseless murders. These families deserve a state attorney who will aggressively prosecute Markeith Loyd to the fullest extent of the law and justice must be served."

 Florida law allows a governor to reassign a case for "good and sufficient" reasons.

 "She has made it clear that she will not fight for justice and that is why I am using my executive authority to immediately reassign the case," Scott said.

 Having initially refused to recuse herself from the case, Ayala said she would follow the governor's order.

 Related:Arrests made, but Orlando still hunts for police shooting suspect

 Ayala was elected last fall in a judicial district that has grown from being moderately conservative to liberal over the last two decades.

 Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi called Ayala's decision “a blatant neglect of duty,” saying it sends a dangerous message to residents and visitors.

 Blaise Trettis, public defender serving Brevard and Seminole counties, said he was not surprised by Ayala's decision.

 He said he believes her decision essentially strips the jury of their choice to make a recommendation for the death penalty.

 "But I don't believe it will have any impact outside Orange County," he said.

 Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow J.D. Gallop on Twitter: @JDGallop

 Related:Orlando police raise reward for suspect wanted in officer's death

 Related:Manhunt underway after fatal shooting of Orlando officer

 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Orlando police say they have captured 41-year-old Markeith Loyd after a weeklong manhunt. Loyd is suspected of fatally shooting Sgt. Debra Clayton in January and killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend in December. USA TODAY NETWORK

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2nz2lmp ||||| (CNN) The Florida state attorney expected to prosecute the murder trial of Markeith Loyd was removed from the case by Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday afternoon after refusing to seek the death penalty in the case.

 Aramis Ayala, the state attorney for the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, said earlier Thursday that her office would not seek the death penalty in any cases.

 Loyd faces 11 counts, including murder and firearm charges, for allegedly killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon and Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton . Loyd's arrest followed an extensive manhunt. He was captured January 17

 Ayala's decision not to seek the death penalty for Loyd sparked immediate criticism from several Florida leaders, including Orlando Police Chief John Minda, who said he was "extremely upset" by it. Scott called on Ayala to recuse herself from the case midday Thursday. After she refused, Scott reassigned Loyd's case to 5th Circuit State Attorney Brad King, he said in a statement

 "[Ayala] has made it clear that she will not fight for justice and that is why I am using my executive authority to immediately reassign the case to State Attorney Brad King," Scott said. "These families deserve a state attorney who will aggressively prosecute Markeith Loyd to the fullest extent of the law and justice must be served."

 Death penalty not in the 'best interest' of the community

 Earlier Thursday, Ayala said capital punishment in Florida had led to "chaos, uncertainty, and turmoil."

 She argued that evidence showed the death penalty was overly expensive, slow, inhumane and did not increase public safety. Ayala said after "extensive and painstaking thought and consideration," she determined that pursing the death penalty "is not in the best interest of this community or the best interest of justice."

 "Some victims will support and some will surely oppose my decision," she said. "But I have learned that the death penalty traps many victims, families in a decadeslong cycle of uncertainty, court hearings, appeals and waiting."

 The US Supreme Court ruled in January 2016 that the state's Capital punishment has been in limbo in Florida recently.The US Supreme Court ruled in January 2016 that the state's death penalty process was unconstitutional , and the state's high court ruled against a proposed fix to that law late last year.

 On Tuesday, the governor signed a new death penalty bill, which was crafted to stand up to those legal challenges.

 'Right side of history'

 Several organizations sided with Ayala.

 "Today's announcement is on the right side of history as momentum against the death penalty in the United States continues to build," Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.

 Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., said Ayala's "acknowledgment that the death penalty system is irreparably broken puts her at the forefront of smart-on-crime prosecutors," according to a statement.

 The stance is significant because Orange County, where Ayala is a chief prosecutor, is among four of Florida's 67 counties that has produced more than five executions since 1976, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said.

 The county is also among 10 Florida counties that together account for half the state's death row population, the organization said.

 Backlash to the decision

 "I have seen the video of Markeith Loyd executing Lt. Debra Clayton while she lay defenseless on the ground," Mina said.

 Lt. Debra Clayton was shot and killed near a Walmart on January 9.

 "She was given no chance to live. A cop killer -- who also killed his pregnant girlfriend -- should not be given that chance. The heinous crimes that he committed in our community are the very reason we have the death penalty as an option under the law."

 Loyd and Dixon had been involved in a relationship and had a child on the way, authorities said. He had been on the run since her fatal shooting at an Orlando residence.

 Clayton received word January 9 that Loyd was near a Walmart and tried to confront him.

 Mina said the suspect "basically opened fire on" Clayton as soon as she told him to stop and continued to shoot even after she was down.

 State Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican, said it "sends a dangerous message" not to seek the death penalty.

 "It is a blatant neglect of duty and a shameful failure to follow the law as a constitutionally elected officer," Bondi said.

 Shawn Dunlap, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Orlando Lodge 25, slammed the decision as an "epic injustice."

 "The death penalty is the law of the land in the state of Florida, and I believe that if there ever was a case for its use this would be the one," Dunlap said.

 Charges dropped against 2 accused accessories

 Charges of acting as accessories after the fact against Zarghee Mayan and Jameis Slaughter were dropped, according to a review of an Orange County court docket.

 Authorities said Mayan did not contact officials after meeting with Loyd, who allegedly told him he had killed Dixon.

 Slaughter was accused of collecting money to give to Loyd, a former boyfriend, while police were searching for him, authorities said.

 The court filing said the case is not suitable for prosecution.

 Slaughter still faces a misdemeanor charge of giving police false information. She's accused of lying about her communication with Loyd while he was on the run.

 Trials set

 When asked to enter a plea this month, Loyd responded: "For the record, I want to state that I am Markeith Loyd. Flesh and blood. I'm a human being. I'm not a fictitious person. I'm not a corporation," he said.

 Chief Judge Frederick J. Lauten entered a not guilty plea on Loyd's behalf.

 Loyd had a series of verbal outbursts when he questioned why the court placed charges against him.

 Court documents indicate Loyd has not been diagnosed with a mental issue, has 10 years' worth of schooling and has a GED certificate.

 A pretrial hearing for the Dixon case is set for April 17, Lauten said. Jury selection for that trial will begin on May 1. The case is expected to last about two weeks.

 On June 19, Loyd will stand trial, accused of killing Clayton. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 12.

 The next status hearing is scheduled for Monday. ||||| Photo via Orange County Jail

 Orlando Police Chief John Mina says he's "extremely upset" that prosecutors won't seek the death penalty for Markeith Loyd, a man accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and fatally shooting an officer who tried to detain him.Mina released the statement on Twitter after speaking with Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala and confirming she would not pursue the death penalty for Loyd."I have seen the video of Markeith Loyd executing Lt. Debra Clayton while she lay defenseless on the ground," Mina says in the statement. "She was given no chance to live. A cop killer – who also killed his pregnant girlfriend – should not be given that chance. The heinous crimes that he committed in our community are the very reason we have the death penalty as an option under the law."The 41-year-old suspect is accused of shooting and killing his former girlfriend Sade Dixon in December. After being on the run for a month, witnesses spotted Loyd at a Walmart on Princeton Street and alerted Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton. When she tried to stop him, Loyd ran away and turned around to fire at her. Clayton was hit, but she was able to return fire and retreat. Authorities say Loyd returned and shot Clayton in an "execution-style" manner before escaping. Police found Loyd hiding in an abandoned home a week later and eventually took him to the Orange County jail, where he's been held since January. Loyd has been acting as his own attorney during appearances in front of a judge.Shawn Dunlap, president of Orlando's police union, also criticized Ayala's decision on Facebook "This would be an epic injustice to the family of Lt. Debra Clayton as well as every single law enforcement Officer in the 9th Judicial Circuit," he writes. "The death penalty is the law of the land in the state of Florida, and I believe that if there ever was a case for its use this would be the one. Not only did Loyd kill Lt. Clayton, he killed his girlfriend, her unborn child and his manhunt directly caused the death of Deputy Norm Lewis."Dunlap suggested Ayala was not seeking the death penalty for Loyd because during her 2016 campaign against then-State Attorney Jeff Ashton, a political action committee linked to liberal billionaire George Soros poured thousands of dollars into her campaign."I believe we are quickly seeing the results of the $819,734 that anti-death penalty, progressive liberal George Soros' spent to assure the candidate who aligns with his philosophy won the race for State Attorney," Dunlap says. "There is no shortage of reports of how Soros has manipulated political races across the country." |||||
What is a summary?

– Orlando's police chief said this week he was "extremely upset" to hear prosecutors wouldn't be going for the death penalty in the case of a man accused of killing a cop and his own ex-girlfriend, the Orlando Weekly reports. Those feelings may be soothed after hearing Florida Gov. Rick Scott's latest news: that he's reassigned Markeith Loyd's case to another attorney in a nearby district, USA Today reports. Instead of State Attorney Aramis Ayala of Orange County's 9th Judicial Circuit Court handling the first-degree murder probe, State Attorney Brad King will be taking on the case instead after Ayala refused to recuse herself, per a release from Scott's office. "These families deserve a state attorney who will aggressively prosecute Markeith Loyd to the fullest extent of the law," said Scott, who added he was "outraged" and "sickened" by the murders Loyd is accused of. Loyd has been hit with 11 counts of murder and firearm charges, among others, after allegedly killing his pregnant ex, Sade Dixon, in December, then gunning down Orlando Lt. Debra Clayton in January, per CNN. Ayala had noted before she was kicked off the case that, after "painstaking thought," she'd decided not to seek capital punishment in any cases, as she doesn't think it's effective or humane. "The death penalty traps many victims, families in a decades-long cycle of uncertainty," she noted, just two days after Scott signed a bill reinstituting the Florida death penalty, per the Sun Sentinel. While human rights groups like Amnesty International took Ayala's side, Orlando Police Chief John Mina railed against her in a statement, noting "heinous crimes" like the one Loyd is accused of "are the very reason" for capital punishment. (What will happen now to these 200-plus Florida death row inmates?)


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 BEAVER COUNTY (KDKA) – At least two people have been killed after a shooting on the Penn State Beaver campus.

 Pennsylvania State Police say the shooting is being investigated as a murder-suicide.

 Troopers say a food services employee at Penn State Beaver was shot near her car by her estranged husband. Police say the estranged husband got her to go outside before shooting her in the parking lot before he then shot and killed himself.

 Troopers say her estranged husband shot and killed her then shot and killed himself near her car. This was nearby the food services area and the campus dining hall in the parking lot outside. No names have been released and no students were injured.

 Penn State Beaver issued an alert just before 4 p.m. Wednesday that shots were fired, adding that the situation is contained and they say there is “no threat at this time.”

 It asks students and faculty to avoid the Student Union building and food services area.

 The school was closed for the remainder of Wednesday. The school announced it would re-open at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 14. Finals scheduled for Thursday will be moved to Friday.

 The school will have grief counselors on hand when the campus re-opens.

 Penn State Beaver is a campus of Pennsylvania State University in Center Township.

 Stay With KDKA.com For More Details ||||| A man who killed his estranged wife and then himself had lured the woman outside her job at the Penn State Beaver campus by saying he had Christmas presents for their children, authorities say.

 Lesli Kelly, 49, was a food services employee at the Brodhead Bistro. The coroner said she died of multiple gunshot wounds in the attack late Wednesday afternoon.

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 The victim's husband was identified as William Kelly, 52, of Aliquippa. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, Beaver County Coroner David Gabauer said.

 Investigators say William Kelly was armed with two semiautomatic .45-caliber handguns, both of which were used.

 "He parked across the parking lot, and walked across and shot and killed her," state police Lt. Eric Hermick said.

 "We're getting indications that there was domestic issues, child support issues, and we're also getting information that he had been harassing her, so right now we're in the process of researching where the guns were purchased from and the background on that," Hermick said. "No current PFA in the system that we're aware of, but that is part of this investigation as well."

 "She worked in the Food Services Department at Penn State Beaver and loved her job. She had a wonderful laugh. Leaves two children, a son and a daughter," said Lesli Kelly's cousin, Ellen Sue Gerhart.

 "I knew her from working with her for this past semester in the Bistro. I was shocked that she was gone. I had saw her cutting fruit today when I went for lunch and talked to her, and now she is gone," Hunter Spisak said. "It's quite the shock when you find out a friend is gone. She will be deeply missed by all of us in the bistro, the next couple of days will be difficult for everyone as we end the semester. She was always telling stories and making jokes with everyone. She was one of the kindest ladies I have had the pleasure of meeting and she will be dearly missed."

 Another of the victim's friends sent WTAE a note about her.

 "Lesli was a beautiful person inside and out. Heart of gold. Rest in peace my friend," wrote Judy Tate-Seawright Dusold.

 The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 _____

 Penn State President Eric Barron released the following statement:

 "Our entire Penn State community is profoundly saddened by the tragedy at the Beaver campus. Our deepest sympathies go to the victim's family and friends during this very difficult time, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Beaver Community.The security and safety of our faculty, staff and students is our top concern.

 As we mourn the terrible loss, I wanted to remind member of the campus community that counselors are available to help those struggling to cope with this tragedy." |||||

Write a summary.

– Two people are dead in what Pennsylvania State Police say was a murder-suicide on a college campus Wednesday, KDKA reports. Police say a female employee at Penn State Beaver was convinced to come outside by her estranged husband, who shot her in a parking lot outside a campus dining hall. Police say the man then shot himself. No names have been released at the moment. No students were involved in the shooting, according to WTAE. "Our thoughts are with all who have been affected," Trib Live quotes Penn State Beaver Chancellor Jenifer Cushman as saying in a statement. Campus was locked down at the time of the shooting and closed afterward. The university will reopen Thursday, but finals are being moved to Friday. Penn State Beaver has 700 or so students and is located approximately 30 miles outside Pittsburgh.


Article:
There are not one, not two, but three different otters involved in the firing of Chiitan, an otter who formerly held the job of honorary tourism ambassador for the city of Susaki in southern Japan. To make matters even more confusing, two of the otters involved in this beef are named Chiitan, and two of them are not… ||||| YORBA LINDA – Several hundred people from as far away as Corona and the San Fernando Valley filled the lawn outside the Yorba Linda Community Center Sunday afternoon and lined Imperial Highway in response to a fundraising event by a Queens, N.Y.-based Muslim group Islamic Circle of North America Relief USA.

 People started gathering about 3 p.m., two-and-a-half hours before the fundraiser began. Many in the crowd waved U.S. flags and carried signs saying, "God Bless America" and "No Sharia Law," in reference to Islam's sacred law. In the afternoon, the event had the atmosphere of a July 4 picnic. Many brought lawn chairs and blankets, sang patriotic songs and tied red, white and blue bandanas on their dogs.

 As the fundraiser started, a splinter group of about 100 stood about 50 yards from the community center entrance and booed, yelled "go home" and chanted "no Sharia law" as attendees entered the building. Among their signs were ones that said "ICNA supports Hamas and Hezbollah."

 ICNA spokesman Syed Waqas said the protesters "should know the facts. We have no links to any overseas organization. We absolutely denounce violence and terrorism."

 He said the group started in Southern California about eight months ago and is trying to raise $350,000 to start social programs such as women's shelters, fighting hunger and homelessness in the area.

 About 300 were expected to attend the event. Admission was $25.

 One of the attendees, Khwaja Ahmad, said he was surprised by the protests. "I am supporting the group because they are raising money for the beggar women."

 A woman attendee who declined to give her name said, "It is surprising, but everyone has a right to express their opinion."

 Many in the crowd outside the event said they were concerned about past anti-American statements by the event's two keynote speakers, Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Amir Abdel Malik Ali. Wahhaj is an imam at a mosque in Brooklyn. A U.S. attorney named him and 169 others as co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj was never charged and has denied involvement.

 Malik Ali is a Bay Area Islamic activist who spoke at "Israeli Apartheid Week" at UC Irvine in 2010. There he said he supports Hezbollah, which the CIA labels a terrorist group.

 Chandler Endresen of Yorba Linda stood on Imperial Highway with about 30 others waving American flags. "I had seen what had gone on at UCI in 2010 when (Malik Ali) spoke. He caused trouble there. I don't want that here."

 "This is not about hate. We are not hate mongers," said Karen Lugo, one of the speakers outside the community center. Several people said they had sent out thousands of e-mails about the ICNA Relief USA fundraiser and encouraged people to show up for a pro-America rally.

 One organizer, Steven Amundson of Huntington Beach said, "A week and a half ago I would have been happy to have six people show up. It's not right for terrorism to come to Yorba Linda. I always stress the need to be peaceful and positive."

 About 11 police officers were near the community center entrance, keeping an eye on the crowd, and at one point asked non-attendees to move back.

 The fundraiser was not sponsored by the city. The city's attorneys said the city cannot block the ICNA from using the building. The group has rented the community center many times, according to member Shahid Hussain.

 Contact the writer: 714-796-7927 or jnorman@ocregister.com ||||| 00:00/00:00 00:00

 A recent Orange County charity fundraiser sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America turned into an outright day of hate when right-wing activist group "We Surround Them OC 912" came out to protest the function. What they called "protest," however, most normal people would call "screaming racial epithets and death threats at Muslim families, many of which contained young children."

 Here, the 10 most egregious and frightening examples of the abusive language used in the video above. While reading through the list, remember that United States Congressman Gary Miller not only attended this event, but told the bigoted crowd, "I am proud of you. I am proud of what you are doing."

 10. "U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!" (When shouted at other American citizens, as if their race makes them less American, "U.S.A." counts as racist.)

 9. "Terrorists! Terrorists! Terrorists!"

 8. "We don't want you here! Go home! Go home! Go home!"

 7. "You beat your women and you rape your children!"

 6. "Take your Sharia and go home, you terrorist lovers. Your hands are bloody! Your money is bloody! Get out!"

 5. "Why don't you go beat up your wife like you do every night? Maybe you ought to go have sex with a nine-year-old, and marry her!"

 4. "One nation under God, not Allah!"

 3. "Muhammad was a child molester! Muhammad was a pervert! Muhammad was a fraud! Muhammad was a false prophet!"

 2. "What's going on over there right now—make no bones about it—that is pure, unadulterated evil."

 1. "I know quite a few Marines who would be very happy to help these terrorists to an early meeting in paradise." (Besides being racist, this one is also a death threat.)

 E-mail Congressman Miller here if you feel like asking him why he's proud of a woman saying her son would be happy to murder peaceful American citizens at a charity function.

 Update: This post initially stated that Congressman Ed Royce told the gathered crowd he was proud of them. In fact, that congressman was Gary Miller. We apologize for the error. |||||Summary:

– A truly disturbing video has surfaced of a protest last month targeting a Muslim charity event in Orange County, Calif. The Feb. 13 protest was organized by several conservative activist groups and attended by two US Congressmen, Ed Royce and Gary Miller, according to Jezebel. The “terrorist” event they were protesting? A fundraiser for women’s shelters and the homeless. As families, many containing small children, filed into the fundraiser, protesters screamed insults at them. Here are some of the harshest, picked out by GOOD: "You beat your women and you rape your children!" "Why don't you go beat up your wife like you do every night? Maybe you ought to go have sex with a nine-year-old, and marry her!" "Muhammad was a child molester! Muhammad was a pervert! Muhammad was a fraud! Muhammad was a false prophet!" "What's going on over there right now—make no bones about it—that is pure, unadulterated evil." "I know quite a few Marines who would be very happy to help these terrorists to an early meeting in paradise." The Orange County Register covered the event when it first occurred. Protesters told the paper that the group organizing the fundraiser, the Islamic Circle of North America, supported Hezbollah and Hamas—something the ICNA vigorously denied. Many in the crowd expressed concerns about two keynote speakers: Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as one of 169 co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing but never charged; and Amir Abdel Malik Ali, who once said he supported Hezbollah.


MOSCOW |

 MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thousands of trucks and cars have been stuck on a major highway, some for more than two days, in a traffic jam dozens of kilometres (miles) long caused by heavy snow northwest of Moscow, Russian media reported on Sunday.

 Police in the Tver region said field kitchens were operating on the road, but many drivers complained supplies never reached them and they were running out of gasoline to keep their engines running and heating on in subzero temperatures.

 "Drivers help one another and that's it, the problems are on the side of the authorities, there are no gasoline tankers, no water, nothing, we are just stuck here," a truck driver who identified himself as Sergei told Rossiya 24 TV channel.

 Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dispatched Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov to Tver on Sunday for a meeting on the situation, and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was ordered to report to Medvedev on Monday on measures to end the jam and help stranded motorists, Medvedev's spokeswoman said.

 Reports put the length of the traffic jam at between 40 km

 and 200 km (120 miles) at different times on Sunday. One man told the state broadcaster he had advanced one kilometre over the previous 24 hours.

 "The reach of the traffic jam at present is no longer than 55 km and is gradually falling," Interfax news agency quoted a police official as saying on Sunday evening.

 Russian authorities have been accused of sluggish responses to weather-related problems including deadly wildfires in 2010 and flooding in the south this summer.

 Officials are jumpy about their jobs after President Vladimir Putin's dismissal of the regional development minister in October and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov last month.

 The M-10 highway links Moscow with Russia's second largest city St Petersburg, some 700 km northwest of the capital, and stretches on to the border with Finland.

 Russia's roads have been the butt of criticism since Tsarist times and its infrastructure has been plagued with problems since the Soviet era, when defence spending was high at the expense of roads, housing, healthcare and other civilian needs. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Sophie Hares) ||||| Story highlights Heavy snow starting Friday caused traffic woes in western Russia

 By Sunday afternoon, backups on a major highway reportedly stretched 125 miles

 Vehicles were finally moving better by the evening, though still only at 3 to 6 miles per hour

 Some travelers griped about price gouging, lack of gas and the response from authorities

 If you've ever griped about being mired in a traffic jam, there was proof this weekend in Russia that it could have been worse.

 Much, much worse.

 The backup Sunday afternoon on part of the main highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg -- the country's two most populated cities -- stretched 125 miles long, according to media reports cited by state-run RIA Novosti news.

 Video showed fog, but little evident precipitation after days of heavy snow. Even so, movement along sections of the M-10 highway largely was limited to foot traffic, not vehicular traffic, as trucks and cars sat motionless.

 Efforts to clear roads had some impact by early evening, by which time tie-ups were down to 34 miles along the M-10 highway, reported the State Automobile Inspectorate, a division of Russia's Interior Ministry. The length of the traffic jam was shrinking about three-fourths of a mile every hour, a spokesman for that agency told the state news outlet.

 That is an improvement, but still a far cry from the "normalization" of traffic that Russia's Emergencies Ministry said would occur by 6 p.m. Sunday, according to RIA Novosti.

 An Emergencies Ministry spokesman reported that, by then, one lane in each direction of the M-10 was clear of snow -- allowing trucks to creep along at 5-10 kph (3-6 mph).

 Blame for the slow slog goes, at least in part, to bad weather. The traffic headaches began Friday, when heavy snow began falling in western Russia. By the time it finally tapered off, three feet had fallen.

 While snow and related traffic woes are hardly unprecedented in Russia in December, drivers had other reasons to complain.

 In comments on social networking and news websites, as related by RIA Novosti, stuck drivers and passengers reported cafes along the clogged roadway took advantage of them by ratcheting up prices. Others said some gas stations had run out of fuel, or grumbled that authorities weren't much help.

 Video showed an inflatable tent popped up on the side of highway, with tables inside full of people filling up on food and drinks. In addition to hot food and warming stations, the RIA Novosti report noted the Emergencies Ministry was making psychological support available to those having trouble coping with the days-long traffic nightmare.

 "(Emergencies Minister Vladmir Puchkov) is making sure that all necessary measures are being taken and that all vital personnel in afflicted regions have everything they need," a ministry spokesman said. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– And you thought your commute was bad: Snow in Russia caused an insane traffic jam this weekend, with thousands of cars and trucks stuck on a major highway yesterday. Some had been stuck for more than two days, as they struggled to keep their engines running and their vehicles heated, Reuters reports. Yesterday afternoon, the backup was 125 miles long, CNN reports. It had shortened to 34 miles by last night as some of the roadway between Moscow and St. Petersburg was cleared. Even so, the length of the backup was decreasing by just three-quarters of a mile per hour, and trucks were only able to drive between 3mph and 6mph. And stuck drivers were getting gouged by nearby cafes that upped prices, while gas stations ran out of fuel and drivers complained that supplies promised from the government never reached them.


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 Infrared readings from a space telescope confirm that water vapor is rising from the surface of Ceres, and that discovery is likely to heat up interest in a strange world that's the biggest asteroid as well as the smallest known dwarf planet.

 The find comes just in time. Next year, NASA's Dawn spacecraft is due to go into orbit around Ceres and is likely to address some of the questions raised in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature: Where is the water vapor coming from? How is it getting into space? And what are the implications for Ceres' place in the solar system?

 "This is what you might call the 'smoking gun,'" Mark Sykes, CEO and director of the Arizona-based Planetary Science Institute, told NBC News. "The implications could be huge for the future of astrobiology and planetary exploration."

 Sykes wasn't involved in the Nature study, which is based on data from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory. Nevertheless, Ceres is close to his heart: He's a co-investigator on the $466 million Dawn mission and has long suggested that the dwarf planet might possess subsurface liquid water — and perhaps even traces of life.

 Reservoirs of water

 The findings from Herschel don't go nearly that far, but they do provide the strongest evidence yet that Ceres contains reservoirs of water ice. Past missions turned up indirect evidence for water, but nothing conclusive. It took Herschel's sensitive HIFI infrared detector to pick up the spectral signature of water vapor, apparently emanating from two dark spots on Ceres' surface.

 "Possibly, the dark regions are warmer than the average surface, resulting in efficient sublimation of small water-ice reservoirs," the researchers, led by ESA's Michael Küppers, wrote in the Nature paper. (Ice can consist of different ingredients on different worlds: Mars, for example, has water ice as well as carbon dioxide ice.)

 Küppers and his colleagues estimated that Ceres was giving off about 13.2 pounds (6 kilograms) of water vapor per second. If that much vapor were condensed into liquid, it would amount to a little more than a gallon and a half (6 liters) of water.

 The researchers speculate that the water vapor could come from a cometlike layer of surface ice, or from volcanoes that eject ice instead of lava.

 "The cryovolcanism hypothesis requires a warm interior, and it is possible there there is a layer of water (subsurface ocean) somewhere," Küppers told NBC News in an email. "In the cometary sublimation scenario, there is 'just' an ice layer that is locally close to the surface and heated by the sun. In this case, there may be conditions for liquid water somewhere in the interior as well, if pressure and temperature happen to be right."

 Implications of an ocean

 The researchers saw more evidence for the comet hypothesis, based on the fact that the signature of water vapor became stronger when Ceres came closer to the sun in its orbit. However, there's not yet enough data to settle the matter. Dawn's observations should provide the required data.

 Ceres is the biggest object in the main asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, orbiting at a distance of about 257 million miles (414 million kilometers) from the sun. Like Pluto, Ceres is considered a dwarf planet because it's massive enough to take on a round shape.

 Küppers said his group's findings lend weight to the idea that impacting asteroids and comets contributed water to the early Earth's oceans. And if Ceres really does harbor a subsurface ocean — something that the Jovian moon Europa and the Saturnian moon Enceladus are already thought to possess — that could strengthen the argument for life on Ceres.

 "This raises the possibility that Ceres could replace Europa as the prime target for planetary investigation," Sykes said. "It's going to upend the cart a bit, but that's science."

 More about Ceres:

 In addition to Küppers, the authors of "Localized Sources of Water Vapour on the Dwarf Planet (1) Ceres" include Laurence O'Rourke, Dominique Bockelee-Morvan, Vladimir Zakharov, Seungwon Lee, Paul von Allmen, Benoit Carry, David Teyssier, Anthony Marston, Thomas Müller, Jacques Crovisier, M. Antonietta Barucci and Raphael Moreno.

 Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding +Alan Boyle to your Google+ circles. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds. ||||| Before Pluto’s fall from planetary grace, there was Ceres. Depending on your definition, it’s either the largest asteroid or the smallest dwarf planet -- but for a few glorious decades in the 1800s, the rocky sphere was a full planet in the solar system's pantheon.

 Now, astronomers have discovered water vapor steaming off this mysterious little planetoid –- and the discovery, published in the journal Nature, could have fascinating implications for the evolution of our solar system.

 “Now we have really for the first time discovered water in the asteroid belt,” said lead author Michael Küppers, a planetary scientist based in Spain with the European Space Agency.

 Ceres sits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter –- and it’s the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. It’s 590 miles wide and roughly spherical, which is part of why it's considered somewhat planet-like –- like Pluto, it's massive enough for its own gravity to crush it into a more or less spherical shape.

 But Ceres soon lost its title as full planet when astronomers realized that its rocky body wasn’t alone: It was sitting in a vast field of rocky bodies, or asteroids. Ceres was named the first and the largest among them.

 Küppers had been looking to do a little reconnaissance work on Ceres before NASA’s Dawn mission visits the planetoid next year. The major question hovering around the dwarf planet: Was it rich in water, or not?

 Ceres’ relatively low density told astronomers that it could potentially have a high amount of water ice stored away. Astronomers in the 1990s picked up the chemical fingerprint of hydroxyl -– a fragment of the water molecule -– in the light coming from Ceres, but a study in 2011 with more sensitive instruments could not back that claim up.

 But using the European Space Agency’s powerful Herschel Space Observatory, Küppers and his team were able to look for the chemical fingerprint of full water molecules, which gave them a much stronger signal. They spotted clear signs of water coming from two separate dark spots, on roughly opposite sides of the little world.

 Water was coming off Ceres at a rate of 6 kilograms, or about 13 pounds, per second -– and the scientists think there could be so much ice packed in the dwarf planet’s mantle that its melted contents would add up to more fresh water than we have on Earth.

 The scientists aren’t exactly sure how the ice is stored on Ceres or how it's escaping as vapor. It could be that some residual internal heat is causing the water to rise up and explode into geyser-like blasts of water vapor -- not liquid, as liquid water requires a thicker atmosphere (like Earth's) to remain stable. It could also simply be that exposed ice on the surface in these two areas is sublimating from a solid to a gas when the sun hits it.

 Whatever the mechanism, the larger question remains: Why is Ceres so wet?

 “One of the most puzzling questions about the origin and evolution of asteroids is why Vesta and Ceres are so different,” Humberto Campins and Christine Comfort of the University of Central Florida wrote in a commentary on the Nature paper.

 After all, Ceres is roughly the same distance from the sun as the lumpy asteroid Vesta, which is volcanic and bone dry. So how did Ceres hold onto this water when Vesta did not?

 It turns out Ceres may not be native to this part of the solar system. It probably originated somewhere beyond the ‘snow line’ -- that imaginary boundary in the solar system beyond which water ice can exist in space, largely out of the reach of the sun’s rays.

 Ceres may have been one of the wanderers set loose in a major migration in the solar system’s history. Massive Jupiter, for example, is thought to have traveled both closer in and then farther out from the sun than where it started -– and its gravitational influence yanked the other planets around the solar system and left scars in the asteroid belt.

 The icy asteroid also supports the idea that asteroids aren't as dry as expected, Küppers said. Icy comets are the usual suspect for having brought water to Earth, but it could just as well have been an asteroid, he said.

 Answering more questions about Ceres, and what it can tell planetary scientists about the solar system’s history, will have to wait. The Herschel Space Telescope ran out of the coolant needed to keep its instruments working last year. But researchers won’t have to wait too long: NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, now that it’s done exploring Vesta, will reach Ceres in spring 2015 and give scientists a close look at this strange, distant world.

 “I’m excited to see what Dawn is going to find out,” said Küppers, who works on the space agency’s comet-hunting Rosetta mission.

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 Is 'Huh?' a universal word? |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– There may be a new contender for the likeliest place to host life elsewhere in our solar system—and it's not a planet or a moon. Astronomers have spotted water vapor from Ceres, classed as both the smallest dwarf planet and largest asteroid, marking the first time water has been confirmed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, reports the Los Angeles Times. The find suggests that internal energy is heating water from Ceres' interior, meaning there could also be a subsurface ocean capable of hosting life. "This is what you might call the 'smoking gun,'" the chief of the Planetary Science Institute tells NBC. "The implications could be huge for the future of astrobiology and planetary exploration." The find "raises the possibility that Ceres could replace Europa as the prime target for planetary investigation," he says. "It's going to upend the cart a bit, but that's science." The vapor is steaming off Ceres at a rate so high that scientists believe it could contain more fresh water than Earth, backing up the theory that our planet's water was brought by asteroids. Astronomers will be able to take a closer look when NASA's Dawn spacecraft reaches Ceres next spring.


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– Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set up Sunday meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the eve of their first big debate, the AP reports—and Trump, who met with Netanyahu first in New York City, made a big promise to the PM that would mark a "potential dramatic shift in US policy," as Reuters frames it. Although Israel refers to the city of Jerusalem as its capital, most other nations, including the US, don't, choosing to keep embassies in Tel Aviv instead. But Trump reportedly told Netanyahu all that would change if he makes it into the White House, noting that "Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish People for over 3,000 years" and that the US, "under a Trump administration, will … recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the state of Israel," according to a statement from Trump's campaign, per Al Jazeera. Reuters notes that the Palestinians want to claim East Jerusalem—which Israel nabbed in the 1967 war and annexed in 1980—for themselves for when they eventually set up their own state next to Israel. But in the private meeting with Netanyahu, Trump is said to have noted that "Israel and its citizens have suffered far too long on the front lines of Islamic terrorism" and that "peace will only come when the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State." What Trump is using to back up his push: a law passed by Congress in 1995 that called for all of Jerusalem to be recognized as Israel's capital, though Al Jazeera points out no president from either major party has ever put the law into effect, as it would cut into the executive branch's sway over foreign policy.

Security personnel stand outside Trump Tower during a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, in New York.... (Associated Press)

 NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were meeting separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, giving the each candidate fresh bragging rights about their knowledge of foreign policy and readiness to lead the nation on the eve of their first presidential debate.

 Trump and Netanyahu discussed "at length" Israel's use of a fence to help secure its borders, an example Trump frequently cites when he's talking about the wall he wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico.

 "Trump recognized that Israel and its citizens have suffered far too long on the front lines of Islamic terrorism," the campaign said in a statement. "He agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu that the Israeli people want a just and lasting peace with their neighbors, but that peace will only come when the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State."

 Clinton was expected to meet with the prime minister later in the day, also in New York.

 The meeting was designed to put Israel on good footing with the next U.S. president. But it also served to showcase the candidates' expertise in foreign policy in the shadow of their first debate Monday, six weeks before Election Day. Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state, often says that Trump does not know enough about the world and lacks the temperament to be president. Trump has argued that he has extensive experience with foreign policy through his career as a business executive and blames Clinton for many of the nation's stumbles in foreign policy.

 Meanwhile, the candidates deployed their top supporters to the Sunday shows to take early jabs at their opponents and lower expectations for a showdown expected to draw 75 million viewers — many of them disenchanted with both candidates, the least-popular presidential hopefuls in history.

 Facts and who will determine them during the 90-minute debate seemed to be a top concern of the campaigns' strategists given Trump's habit of saying things that are untrue and the public's general distrust of Clinton.

 Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, told ABC's "This Week" that he is concerned Trump will continue his habit of sometimes saying things that aren't true and still get a passing grade. He called on moderator Lester Holt to correct any inaccuracies made by the candidates. But Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said it's not the job of debate moderators to fact check.

 Trump's vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, meanwhile, said that Gennifer Flowers will not attend the debate. Trump had tweeted that if frequent Trump critic Mark Cuban attended the showdown, he'd put Flowers, allegedly the former mistress of Clinton's husband Bill, in the audience too. Conway said that Flowers had a right to be there if "somebody else gives her a ticket." But Pence drew a harder line.

 "Gennifer Flowers will not be attending the debate tomorrow night," Pence said on "Fox News Sunday."

 The candidates were focused on other matters Sunday.

 Trump's campaign said that during his meeting with Netanyahu, the Republican presidential nominee promised, "extraordinary strategic, technological, military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries" if he's elected.

 The press was barred from covering the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump, but Trump's campaign said in a statement that the men, who have known each other for years, discussed "many topics important to both countries," including "the special relationship between America and Israel and the unbreakable bond between the two countries."

 Among those topics: the nuclear deal with Iran, the battle against Islamic State militants, military assistance provided by the U.S. to Israel and other security issues.

 ___

 Kellman reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report from New York.

 __

 Follow Kellman, Colvin and Thomas on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com @LaurieKellman, @JColvin and @KThomasDC. ||||| Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has pledged to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's "undivided" capital if he is elected.

 Trump met privately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence in Trump Tower on Sunday, a day before the New York billionaire faces off against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in their first presidential debate. Clinton was also expected to meet Netanyahu in New York on the eve of the debate.

 "Trump acknowledged that Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people for over 3,000 years, and that the US, under a Trump administration, will finally accept the long-standing congressional mandate to recognise Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the state of Israel," his campaign said in a statement.

 Israel captured the Arab eastern half of Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed it in 1980, declaring all of Jerusalem Israel's unified capital.

 The United States, and most other United Nations member countries, do not recognise the annexation and consider Jerusalem's final status to be a key issue to be resolved in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

 The US Congress passed a law in October 1995 calling for an undivided Jerusalem to be recognised as Israel's capital and to authorise funding for moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

 But no US president, Democrat or Republican, has implemented the law, regarding it as an infringement on the executive branch's authority over foreign policy.

 No mention by Netanyahu

 Netanyahu's office issued a statement about the hour-long meeting but made no mention of Trump's pledge on Jerusalem.

 "Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed with Mr Trump issues relating to Israel's security and its efforts to achieve stability and peace in the Middle East," it said.

 The Trump statement said he promised Netanyahu that Washington would provide Israel with "extraordinary strategic, technological and military cooperation" if he is elected.

 Netanyahu's meetings with Trump and Clinton come after the US recently completed a 10-year, $38bn military aid package for Israel.

 Clinton said in a statement that it would help "solidify and chart a course for the US-Israeli defence relationship in the 21st century as we face a range of common challenges". ||||| Jerusalem: Before 1967

 The armistice line drawn at the end of the 1948 war divided Jerusalem into two. Between 1949 and 1967, Israel controlled the western part of Jerusalem, while Jordan took the eastern part, including the old walled city containing important Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious sites.

 Jerusalem: After 1967

 Israel captured the whole of Jerusalem in 1967 and extended the city's municipal boundaries, putting both East and West Jerusalem under its sovereignty and civil law. In 1980 Israel passed a law making its annexation of East Jerusalem explicit. The city's status remains disputed, with Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem considered illegal under international law. Israel is determined that Jerusalem be its undivided capital, while Palestinians are seeking to establish their capital in East Jerusalem. |||||