Jun 11, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) controls the ball against Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) and guard Klay Thompson (11) during the third quarter of game four of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

The top-seeded Golden State Warriors rediscovered their scoring touch and tied the NBA Finals at 2-2 with a momentum-stealing 103-83 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday in Game Four.

NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry, and Andre Iguodala each had 22 points for Golden State as the Warriors breathed new life into their title hopes by avoiding their first three-game skid of the season.

“We controlled the tempo and rhythm of the game,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “It’s not just about playing hard. It’s about playing every single possession like it’s your last.

“And I thought tonight our effort took a step up and that’s why we were able to win.”

Cleveland’s Timofey Mozgov had a game-high 28 points while LeBron James, who went down hard in the second quarter after slamming his head on a camera, finished with 20 points on 7-of-22 shooting.

Game Five is scheduled for Sunday in Oakland.

Like the last two games, the Warriors stumbled out of the gate, falling behind 7-0 in the first three minutes before taking an early timeout to regroup. From there, the Warriors found their rhythm.

Curry helped cut the deficit with a pair of three pointers and Golden State closed the quarter with an impressive 14-4 run to build a 31-24 lead that set the tone the rest of the way.

The Warriors, showing glimpses of the run-and-gun offense that was absent for much of the last two games, kept their foot on the gas during the second quarter where they built a 15-point lead with about four minutes to go before the break.

Cleveland then got a scare when James, the best player of his generation, hit his head on a camera along the baseline after a foul by Andrew Bogut caused him to lose his balance.

James, who suffered a cut to his head on the play, stayed down for a while as the home crowd went silent but remained in the game.

“I was just trying to regain my composure, and I was holding my head. It was hurting,” said James, who missed three of his next four free throws after the incident. “I was just hoping I wasn’t bleeding. But obviously the camera cut me pretty bad.”

Iguodala made the most out of his first start of the campaign with his best offensive performance of the season along with eight rebounds and a solid job defending James.

Trailing by 12 to start the half, Cleveland got to within three points when James emphatically threw down an impressive alley-oop dunk on a pass from Matthew Dellavedova to cap a 12-2 Cavs run with five minutes to play in the third.

But the Warriors, playing with a sense of desperation, were never tested the rest of the way as they cruised through the fourth quarter and had many fans heading to the exits with five minutes left in the game.

The performance could not have come at a better time for the Warriors as none of the 32 teams who have fallen behind 3-1 in the NBA Finals have come back to win the series.

“Tonight we came in with the mentality that, obviously, like we were saying, we had to win this game,” Curry told reporters. “It was about effort and consistent effort every possession.”

(Editing by Ian Ransom/Sudipto Ganguly/Amlan Chakraborty)

Women wearing masks to prevent contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) walk at Myeongdong shopping district in central Seoul, South Korea, June 11, 2015.
REUTERS/KIM HONG-JI

South Korea has sealed off two hospitals that treated people with a deadly respiratory disease, officials said on Friday, even as the outbreak that has been spreading through health facilities could have peaked.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has infected 126 people in South Korea and killed 11 since it was first diagnosed just over three weeks ago in a businessman who had returned from a trip to the Middle East.

The outbreak is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, where the disease was first identified in humans in 2012, and has stirred fears in Asia of a repeat of a 2002-03 scare when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) killed about 800 people worldwide.

The 68-year-old man who brought the virus back from the Middle East visited several health centers for treatment of a nagging cough and fever before he was diagnosed, leaving a trail of infection in his wake.

The danger of the virus in hospitals had led to two being sealed off with at least 133 people – patients and staff – inside. They would be sealed off for at least the next 11 days, given the incubation period of the virus, officials said.

“No patients can get out of their rooms,” said a city government official in the capital, Seoul, who declined to be identified.

“Nurses in protective gear are giving them food. No one can get in from outside.”

All but one of South Korea’s cases have been confirmed as originating with the businessman who traveled to the Middle East and happening in health-care centers, and the last one is likely to be confirmed as such too, the health ministry said.

WORST OVER?

MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused SARS. It is more deadly than SARS but does not spread as easily, at least for now. There is no cure or vaccine.

World Health Organization (WHO) experts are in South Korea working with the government and a delegation of Saudi Arabian health officials is meeting authorities on Friday.

The health ministry reported four new cases on Friday, the lowest daily increase in 11 days, raising hope the worst might be over.

The number of people in quarantine, either at home or in medical facilities, also declined for the first time, by 125 to 3,680, the ministry said.

The incubation period for many people exposed to infected patients is ending, which should mean a decline in new cases, said infectious disease expert Jacob Lee.

“There may be a third wave from hospitals that MERS patients had stayed at but it won’t spread as much as it has,” Lee told Reuters.

The central bank cut interest rates on Thursday in the hope of softening the blow to an economy already beset by slack demand and plunging visitor arrivals.

Alarm has spread throughout the region even though only one case has been reported outside South Korea in this outbreak, that of a South Korean man who traveled to China via Hong Kong after defying a suggestion from health authorities that he stay in voluntary quarantine at home.

South Korea’s new cases bring the total number of MERS cases globally to 1,275, based on WHO data, with at least 450 related deaths.

(This story corrects to “off” in headline)

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015.
REUTERS/U.S. NAVY/HANDOUT VIA REUTER

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter met a top Chinese general on Thursday and repeated a U.S. call for a halt to land reclamation in the South China Sea, while stressing that the Pentagon remained committed to expanding military contacts with China.

In the meeting with General Fan Changlong, a deputy head of China’s powerful Central Military Commission, Carter stressed his commitment to developing “a sustained and substantive U.S.-China military-to-military relationship”, the Pentagon said.

It said this would be based on a shared desire to deepen cooperation in areas including humanitarian assistance, disaster response, peacekeeping, counter-piracy, as well as “constructive management of differences”.

In reiterating U.S. concerns about tensions in the South China Sea, Carter called on China and all rival claimants to halt land reclamation and militarization of disputed territory, and to pursue a peaceful resolution in accordance with international law, the Pentagon statement said.

Carter also reaffirmed his commitment to reach a consensus by September on a memorandum of understanding aimed at reducing the risk of accidents when the two countries’ aircraft operate in close proximity, the statement said.

Fan told Carter that China’s construction work in the South China Sea was mostly to improve living conditions in order to better protect its sovereignty. He also said China had a right to build on its own territory and deploy forces there, China’s Defence Ministry said.

Fan also urged the United States to stop its military activities in the South China Sea.

“The South China Sea issue is only an interlude in Sino-U.S. ties and both sides should look further ahead and pay attention to more important and bigger international and regional issues,” it paraphrased Fan as saying.

Fan’s visit to the Pentagon was part of a week-long trip to the United States, which will include a meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice at the White House on Friday. Earlier this week, Fan visited the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and U.S. military bases.

Wu Xi, deputy chief of mission at the Chinese embassy in Washington, said on Wednesday that Fan’s trip was aimed at preparing the way for a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September.

China protested to the United States last month after a U.S. spy plane with a television crew aboard flew close to artificial islands China has been building in the South China Sea.

The need for an understanding on air operations was shown last year when the Pentagon accused a Chinese fighter pilot of conducting a “dangerous intercept” of a U.S. Navy patrol plane by flying a few yards from the U.S. jet and performing acrobatic maneuvers around it.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Ken Wills and Paul Tait)

Syrian refugees wait near the border fences as they are pictured from the Turkish side of the border, near Akcakale in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 11, 2015.
REUTERS/OSMAN ORSAL

Thousands of people fled from Syria into Turkey on Wednesday as moderate rebels and Kurdish forces fought Islamic State insurgents holding the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad.

A Reuters photographer at the scene said the refugees had entered Turkey through a makeshift border crossing overseen by Turkish gendarmerie officers, and that many of them were women and children.

A Turkish official said 2,000 refugees were being registered on Wednesday after more than 6,800 were admitted in the area last week.

He said they were fleeing advances by Kurdish YPG forces as well as aerial bombardment by the United States and Arab allies trying to help the Kurds push back Islamic State.

The northeastern corner of Syria is important to the radical Islamist group because it links areas under Islamic State control in Syria and Iraq.

The group last week launched an offensive on the provincial capital, the city of Hasaka, which is divided into zones run separately by the government of President Bashar al-Assad and a Kurdish administration.

But Syria’s Kurds have also sought to take advantage of Syria’s complex war to expand their control over a region, stretching from Kobani to Qamishli, that they see as part of a future Kurdish state.

Turkey, for its part, fears that this will encourage separatism in its own, adjacent Kurdish region.

The Turkish official said it appeared that all the refugees were Syrian or Iraqi Arabs, rather than Kurds.

“A significant demographic change is taking place in the area. Arabs are being pushed away as Kurds flow in,” he said. “Moving forward, the native population of the region might not have a place to go back to.”

(Writing by Dasha Afanasieva, Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Jun 11, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala (9) celebrates with guard Stephen Curry (30) during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game four of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Getting his first start of the season on the game’s biggest stage, Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala delivered a standout performance that may ultimately prove to be the turning point in the NBA Finals.

After losing consecutive games to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Warriors were looking for a spark on Thursday that would send them home with the best-of-seven series tied at 2-2 rather than facing elimination.

That spark came in the form of a 31-year-old veteran, who not only delivered his best offensive performance of the season in the 103-82 win but also contained Cavs forward LeBron James, the best player of his generation.

“We needed to shift the tempo, and that’s why we did it,” Kerr said about the decision to start Iguodala in place of Andrew Bogut. “And who knew if it was going to work out or not? but it went our way tonight.”

Iguodala had averaged 12.3 points off the bench over the first three games of the series but dug deep when it mattered most, given that none of the 32 teams who have fallen behind 3-1 in the NBA Finals have come back to win the series.

Known more for his defense, Iguodala coolly drained four three-pointers en route to a season-high 22 points in 39 minutes for the top-seeded Warriors.

James has been carrying Cleveland and averaged 41 points over the first three games of the series but had a tough time against Iguodala, managing just 20 points on 7-of-22 shooting.

Iguodala was open about his strategy for defending James.

“Make him work as hard as possible. Make him take tough shots,” said Iguodala. “You look at his strengths, his weaknesses, which way he wants to go, which way he prefers to play, and you try to take him out of his comfort zone.”

After having his minutes limited all season long, Iguodala looked like the most energetic player on the court all night. His performance drew high praise from team mate and reigning league Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry.

“He pretty much embodies what he just talked about, always being ready,” said Curry. “I think he likes the challenge of his match-up, and especially in this series and throughout the course of the season.

“Or each game, no matter what he’s asked to do, being ready to bring it. Confidence in knocking down shots when he’s open, making plays.”

(Editing by Nick Mulvenney)

Tourists wearing masks to prevent contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) rest at Myeongdong shopping district in central Seoul, South Korea, June 12, 2015.
REUTERS/KIM HONG

South Korea’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday seven new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), taking the total to 145 in an outbreak that the World Health Organization called “large and complex.”

All of the cases are believed to be linked to hospital settings and traced to a businessman who had returned from a trip to the Middle East. There have been 14 deaths, all elderly patients or people who had been suffering serious ailments.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

FILE PHOTO: A surgery operation in Marseille, southern France, April 14, 2008. REUTERS/ JEAN-PAUL PELISSIER

A young South African man who had the world’s first successful penis transplant last December has impregnated his girlfriend, the doctor who led the surgery said on Friday.

The 22-year-old man, who has not been named, is among around 250 South Africans who lose their penises each year in botched traditional circumcisions.

The nine-hour transplant operation formed part of a pilot study by Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch. The patient was sexually active five weeks later.

“To us it means we are ticking most of the boxes where this guy can stand and urinate normally, can have sexual intercourse and his penis function has recovered completely,” Andre van der Merwe, who led the surgical team, told Reuters.

“Now to have children is the last thing we wanted.”

He said that independent pregnancy or paternity tests have not been done to verify it was indeed the patient’s child but he had no reason to disbelieve the young man, who was employed and lived in Cape Town.

“I know that he can ejaculate normally and there is no reason for him to be infertile. I was expecting a pregnancy at some stage, even though I didn’t expect it this early,” he said.

Each year, hundreds of young South African men, mainly from the Xhosa tribe, lose their penises after coming-of-age rituals go wrong. It is hoped Van der Merwe’s pioneering surgery will help them overcome the physical and psychological trauma.

Announcing the successful transplant in March, Van der Merwe’s team said the procedure could eventually be offered to men who have lost their penis to cancer or as a last resort for severe erectile dysfunction.

Van der Merwe has received requests for penis transplants from as far afield as the United States, Colombia and Russia.

“I do believe we will transplant again before the end of the year,” he said.

(Editing by Joe Brock and Dominic Evans)

(REUTERS)

Google Inc (GOOGL.O) said on Friday that it is launching a live streaming gaming service called “YouTube Gaming”, creating a rival to Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) Twitch service.

The service, to be available in the form of an app as well as a website, will focus exclusively on gamers and gaming.

More than 25,000 games will each have their own page on the site, bringing videos and live streams about various titles together in a single space, Google said.

Users will be able to add games to their collection for quick access, subscribe to channels, and receive recommendations on new games based on the games and channels they follow.

“When you want something specific, you can search with confidence, knowing that typing “call” will show you “Call of Duty” and not “Call Me Maybe,” Google said in a blog post. (bit.ly/1FYRqD4)

Amazon bought Twitch Interactive last year for $970 million, beating a rival bid from Google.

“We welcome new entrants into the growing list of competitors since gaming video is obviously a huge market that others have their eye on,” said Matthew DiPietro, Twitch’s vice president of marketing.

Twitch also tweeted a welcome message to its rival, saying, “@YouTubeGaming Welcome Player 2. Add me on Google +. #kappa”

“Kappa” is an emoticon used mostly by Twitch users to convey sarcasm.

YouTube Gaming will available on the web, mobiles and tablets on both Android and iOS operating systems, according to a tweet from its official account. (bit.ly/1Fdtbk5)

The service will launch this summer, starting in the United States and UK.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru and Mari Saito in San Francisco; Editing by Simon Jennings)

Installing of solar panels (Reuters / Amit Dave)

One of the largest companies to manufacture solar panels in the United States uses a surprising resource to keep costs low and compete against producers from China: prison labor.

Suniva Inc, a Georgia-based solar cell and panel maker that is backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, farms out a small portion of its manufacturing to federal inmates as part of a longstanding government program intended to prepare them for life after prison.

Suniva does not actively publicize its work with the prisons, saying it prefers to talk about its in-house factories in Georgia and Michigan, which handle most of its production and employ more than 350 people.

But the company’s arrangement with Federal Prison Industries, known as Unicor, has helped Suniva move all of its solar panel assembly to the United States from Asia over the last 18 months, said Matt Card, vice president of global sales and manufacturing. The company says prison labor accounts for less than 10 percent of its panel manufacturing.

By making panels in the United States, Suniva has been able to capture lucrative federal contracts, avoid U.S. government tariffs on Chinese-made panels, and appeal to private sector customers who want American-made products. The company is the third-biggest producer of solar modules that are made in the United States, according to GTM Research.

“As a U.S. company you have to be very, very smart about where you manufacture,” Card said.

Inmates working for Unicor, which has existed since the 1930s, have long made things like license plates and goods for the military. Solar panels were added to its list of products so that inmates could acquire skills in a new and growing industry and help government efforts to use more renewable energy.

The vast majority of Unicor’s 12,000 inmate workers make products for the federal government, but as federal budgets have shrunk in recent years the company has been trying to attract more contract work from private businesses. About 10 percent of its inmate workers are now engaged in such work.

About 200 inmates make solar panels working in factories at prisons in Sheridan, Oregon and Otisville, New York. A request by Reuters to visit a prison solar factory was denied by prison officials.

Suniva was founded in 2007 by solar scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and it has grown rapidly. While the private company doesn’t disclose its financials, a federal contract from 2014 said Suniva had $93 million in annual revenue.

The company’s panels generate more electricity from the sun than typical Chinese-made panels, and they therefore command a premium price in the market.

‘A GOOD PRODUCT’

Suniva panels are on systems at Whole Foods Market Inc’s flagship store in Austin, Texas and at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, to name just two projects. The company does not disclose where panels for individual projects are made.

SolarCity Corp, the top U.S. rooftop solar installer, also purchases Suniva panels.

“It’s a good product,” SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass said in an email. “Suniva’s relationship with Unicor has never been a factor in our decision to use the modules… the mission to provide job training to prepare inmates for successful re-entry to the workforce is admirable.”

Suniva has raised more than $200 million from investors including Goldman Sachs, venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and Prelude Ventures and private equity firms H.I.G. Ventures and Warburg Pincus. It has also received $6.8 million in Department of Energy grants.

Goldman Sachs would not comment on its investment in Suniva.

Suniva would not give any details on its financial arrangement with Unicor, citing government restrictions on the disclosure of contract terms. Unicor also declined to offer details on how individual contract manufacturing agreements are structured.

The average wage for inmate workers in the Unicor programs is 92 cents an hour, though employers pay a significantly higher amount to Unicor for overhead and other costs. Inmates responsible for court-ordered fines, victim restitution or child support payments are required to use half their earnings to meet those financial obligations.

Suniva has “no visibility” into how much inmates are paid, Card said.

“It costs us more to manufacture through Unicor than it does in China,” he added.

But the company sees advantages to its American operations, both in and out of prisons. The company saves 30 to 45 days of transit time from Asia so products get to market more quickly. This is significant now that 90 percent of Suniva products are used in U.S. projects and marks a change from when it was shipping most of its solar cells to Europe and Asia.

Unicor says its workers are 24 percent less likely than other inmates to return to criminal behavior once they are released from prison. The program is focused on providing work experience to prisoners who are within two years of release.

REPATRIATION

In 2012, Suniva approached the prison company about starting production as a contract manufacturer, according to Card. Under the agreement, Suniva provides all the raw materials. It also paid to convert Unicor’s factory equipment to support its manufacturing process.

Unicor had been making its own panels since 2009 but later gave up because federal agencies were hiring large energy service companies for solar projects and were not purchasing stand-alone panels.

The arrangement with Suniva was among the first in which Unicor positioned itself as a manufacturer that could help U.S. companies transfer production from overseas to the United States through what it called “repatriation.”

The repatriation projects are meant to address criticism that it is unfair for U.S. companies to have to compete with Unicor for government contracts. Unicor has about 40 repatriation projects for private companies that manufacture signs, electronics and more.

The Business Coalition for Fair Competition, a group opposed to the government competing with private businesses, said it would like to see a verification system to make sure the so-called repatriation work being done in prisons is not being taken away from American workers.

“There has to be some transparency,” said John Palatiello, the group’s president.

Solar was one of the industries considered ripe for the repatriation program, because Chinese-made panels were being slapped with hefty tariffs in the United States, according to Unicor board meeting minutes.

But the deal has been far from a success for the prison company so far. Revenue from the solar operations has fallen short of projections, Cantwell said, but declined to specify why.

“We are therefore currently evaluating how best to proceed with the solar program,” she wrote.

Suniva’s Card said he could not comment on specific operational details, adding that demand for Suniva modules exceeds expectations.

“We are very happy with Unicor’s workmanship and quality,” Card said. “Both organizations continually look for opportunities to increase production and deepen the relationship between us.”

(Editing by Terry Wade and Sue Horton)

Jun 14, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes (40) dunks the ball over Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mike Miller (18) and center Timofey Mozgov (20) in game five of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena on Jun 14, 2015. Ezra Shaw-Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports

June 14 (Reuters) – – The Golden State Warriors won the battle ofsmall-ball and defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-91 on Sunday to move within a win of their first NBA title in 40 years.

Stephen Curry scored 37 points and the Warriors withstood a 40-point triple-double from LeBron James to grab a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

They can clinch their first championship since 1975 with a win in Game Six on Tuesday in Cleveland.

Their Game Five win was a battle of speed, with both teams benching their big men as a strategic move.

After the Warriors benched center Andrew Bogut to return to their run-and-gun style in a 21-point Game Four victory, Cleveland responded by limiting starting center Timofey Mozgov to just nine minutes on Sunday.

The move kept Cleveland close deep into the fourth quarter until Andre Iguodala scored five straight points to put Golden State ahead 91-84 with less than four minutes remaining.

Curry, who scored 17 points in the fourth, added two late

three-pointers and free throws to help seal the win.

Iguodala finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. James tallied 14 rebounds and 11 assists for his second triple-double of the series.

(Reporting by Jahmal Corner; Editing by Ian Ransom)

Veteran jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar speaks in this undated still image taken from a video released by Sahara Media on January 21, 2013.
REUTERS/SAHARA MEDIA VIA REUTERS TV

A veteran Islamist militant blamed for a deadly attack on an Algerian gas field and who ran smuggling routes across North Africa has been killed in a U.S. air strike inside Libya, Libya’s government said on Sunday.

The recognized government said the strike had killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant who became a major figure in insurgencies across North Africa and the Saharan border region and was dubbed “The Uncatchable” by the French military.

The U.S. military confirmed Belmokhtar had been targeted in Saturday night’s air strike but did not say if he was killed.

The Pentagon was continuing to assess the results of the operation, spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said in a statement.

Libya’s internationally recognized government, which sits in the eastern town of Bayda, said the U.S strike had killed Belmokhtar at a gathering with other militant leaders, who it did not name.

Libyan officials gave no further details about the area of the strike. But Libyan military sources said an air strike on a farmhouse on Saturday in Ajdabiya city near Benghazi had killed seven members of the Ansar al Sharia militant group who had been meeting there.

ELUSIVE ‘GANGSTER-JIHADIST’

Belmokhtar earned a reputation as one of the most elusive jihadi leaders in the region. He has been reported killed several times, including in 2013 when he was believed to have died in fighting in Mali.

If confirmed, the death of Belmokhtar – who was blamed for orchestrating the 2013 attack on Algeria’s In Amenas gas field in which 40 oil workers died, and for several foreign kidnappings – would be a major strike against al Qaeda-tied groups in the region.

Once associated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s Algerian leadership, Belmokhtar broke from the group but remained tied to al Qaeda’s central leadership even after forming his own group “Those who sign in Blood”.

The one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan and Algeria’s own 1990s Islamist war had long been a major figure in Saharan smuggling, hostage-taking, arms trafficking and insurgencies, including the conflict in Mali.

Linked to a string of kidnappings of foreigners in North Africa in the past decade, Belmokhtar, who was born in Algeria in 1972, earned a reputation as one of the most important “gangster-jihadists” of the Sahara.

He also gained prominence as a supplier of arms to Islamist groups and as a trafficker of cigarettes, which gained him the nickname “Mister Marlboro” among the local population in the Sahara.

LASER-GUIDED?

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and Libya’s slide into chaos and fighting between two rival governments, the North African state has seen the rise of Islamist militant groups, which have taken advantage of the turmoil.

Some are allied with al Qaeda’s leadership, others have local loyalties and some have recently declared allegiance with Islamic State, which has been gaining ground.

Ansar al-Sharia is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States after it was blamed for the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi that led to the death of the American ambassador.

In 2013, U.S. special forces carried out a raid on Tripoli to capture Abu Anas al-Liby – a Libyan suspected in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 civilians.

European states and Libya’s North African neighbors have grown alarmed at Islamic State’s expansion beyond its strongholds in Iraq and Syria to a chaotic country just across the Mediterranean sea from mainland Europe and with little control over its porous borders.

One Ajdabiya city resident said Saturday night’s air strike had appeared to be much more accurate than ones carried out by local forces. The resident said it appeared to be laser-guided.

“It was a really accurate strike,” the witness said.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli and Peter Cooney in Washington; Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Sandra Maler and John Stonestreet)

A tourist wearing a mask to prevent contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) asks a sales assistant for directions as they tour Myeongdong shopping district in central Seoul, South Korea, June 12, 2015.
REUTERS/KIM HONG-JI

Thousands of South Korean schools that were shut to stop the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) reopened on Monday as the country sought to return to normal, nearly four weeks into an outbreak that shows signs of slowing.

Five new cases were reported by the Health Ministry on Monday, taking the total to 150, the largest outbreak outside of Saudi Arabia. The ministry also said another patient infected with the MERS virus had become the 16th fatality.

But the number of new cases was sharply lower than daily rises that reached as high as 23 last week. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday the decline suggested that control measures were working.

First identified in humans in 2012, MERS is caused by a corona virus from the same family as the one that triggered China’s deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There is no cure or vaccine.

A hospital in Daejeon, 140 km (87 miles) south of Seoul, stopped taking all new patients on Monday as a precaution after a nurse there was among those diagnosed with the virus, the fifth hospital to have shut down completely or in part.

All of the cases in what the WHO called a “large and complex” outbreak have been traced to healthcare facilities.

At least 440 schools remained closed on Monday, compared with the 2,900 that were shut on Friday.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, whose approval rating has been battered over the government’s response to MERS, urged people to return to normal.

“I ask the business community, too, to continue to go on with investment, production and management activities as normal and particularly help with ensuring that consumers don’t hold back from spending money,” she told senior aides.

The Health Ministry said it would quarantine or put under observation about 4,000 people who may have been exposed to MERS at a prominent Seoul hospital, the Samsung Medical Center, which has suspended most services.

But many in that group are among the 5,216 already under quarantine, most of them at home and some in hospitals.

INCUBATION PERIOD

The Samsung hospital said on Sunday it was suspending all non-emergency surgery and would take no new patients after more than 70 cases were traced to it, including a worker who was found to have been in contact with more than 200 people.

Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan told parliament that the next two days would be a watershed period for the outbreak, as the two-week incubation period for the initial wave of cases traced to the Samsung hospital comes to an end.

Choi, who is also the finance minister, said the government was considering a possible supplementary budget to bolster the economy, Asia’s fourth-biggest. [ID:nL3N0Z11OE]

At Myoungin Elementary School in the city of Suwon, south of Seoul, teachers greeted students at the gate for the first time in 10 days, taking temperatures and sending home anyone with a fever.

The WHO last week recommended schools be reopened, saying they have not been linked to transmission of the virus in South Korea or elsewhere.

“The child’s mother and I both work, so I think it’s better for kids to be in school where there can be proper measures, rather than keeping them home,” said Bin Ko-ok, who brought her first-grader grandchild to school.

South Korea said more than 110,000 group tourists had called off visits since the start of the outbreak, and forecast that from June through August 820,000 fewer people would visit, at a cost of $900 million in lost potential revenue.

The trend is expected to continue through the summer, the culture ministry said. Chinese airlines were cutting back flight to South Korea, Xinhua news agency reported.

South Korea’s largest hypermarket chain, E-Mart Co Ltd, said online sales between June 1-11 had risen 63 percent year-on-year, as people avoided stores, while No.2 Homeplus’s online sales between June 1-14 rose 50 percent.

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park, Hooyeon Kim, Park Minwoo and Christine Kim; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie and Tony Munroe)

Mula sa PAGASA-DOST, alamin natin ang pinakahuling taya ng panahon.

PAGASA-DOST Satellite Image

Tanks are seen on a freight train shortly after its arrival at a railway station in the Russian southern town of Matveev Kurgan, near the Russian-Ukrainian border in Rostov region, Russia, May 26, 2015. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Maria Tsvetkova

A plan by Washington to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia’s border would be the most aggressive U.S. act since the Cold War, and Moscow would retaliate by beefing up its own forces, a Russian defense official said on Monday.

The United States is offering to store military equipment on allies’ territory in eastern Europe, a proposal aimed at reassuring governments worried that after the conflict in Ukraine, they could be the Kremlin’s next target.

Poland and the Baltic states, where officials say privately they have been frustrated the NATO alliance has not taken more decisive steps to deter Russia, welcomed the decision by Washington to take the lead.

But others in the region were more cautious, fearing their countries could be caught in the middle of a new arms race between Russia and the United States.

“If heavy U.S. military equipment, including tanks, artillery batteries and other equipment really does turn up in countries in eastern Europe and the Baltics, that will be the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and NATO since the Cold War,” Russian defense ministry official General Yuri Yakubov said.

“Russia will have no option but to build up its forces and resources on the Western strategic front,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

He said the Russian response was likely to include speeding up the deployment of Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave bordered by Poland and Lithuania, and beefing up Russian forces in ex-Soviet Belarus.

“Our hands are completely free to organize retaliatory steps to strengthen our Western frontiers,” Yakubov said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the Pentagon plan, citing the lack of any official announcements from the U.S. government.

ALLIED ARMY

U.S. officials said their proposal envisages storing a company’s worth of equipment, enough for 150 soldiers, in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Enough equipment for a company or possibly a battalion, or about 750 soldiers, would also be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary.

The idea was that, in the event of an attack on NATO’s eastern border, the United States could quickly fly in troops who would use the equipment, cutting out the weeks or months it would take to transport convoys of gear overland across Europe.

However, the U.S. proposal could cause tensions within NATO, an alliance that often struggles to accommodate more hawkish members such as Poland or Lithuania alongside other states that want to avoid a military stand-off with Russia at any cost.

Speaking after talks in Warsaw with the U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said he expected a final U.S. decision on the equipment within a few weeks.

“They know how important this is to us, because we want to build a permanent U.S. presence, the allied army here on the Polish territory,” Siemoniak told reporters.

“It seems to me that such enterprises, that is equipment warehouses, are a very crucial step when it comes to building such a presence.”

TWO-SPEED NATO

Since Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and a rebellion by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states – countries with a history of Russian occupation – have pushed NATO for a muscular response.

But proposals for a permanent NATO combat presence in eastern Europe were blocked by Germany and some other alliance members. Instead, NATO intensified exercises, rotating troops through the region and set up a command headquarters for a rapid reaction force in north-west Poland.

Sources close to the government in Poland, and other states in the region, said that response persuaded them they could not fully rely on NATO, and that their best bet in the event of an attack was that the U.S. military would come to their aid.

At a NATO summit in Wales last year, agreement was reached on “pre-positioning” military equipment in eastern Europe, but the Pentagon’s plan appeared to go further and faster than measures envisaged by the alliance.

The initiative could force some former Warsaw Pact countries now in NATO to make uncomfortable choices.

Bulgaria and Hungary both say they are committed members of the alliance, but they have maintained close cultural and commercial ties to Moscow, and may not want to jeopardize those links by storing U.S. military equipment on their soil.

Rosen Plevneliev, the Bulgarian President, said it was too early to say if his country would join the Pentagon’s initiative.

“At the current moment there is no proposal whatsoever to the Bulgarian government upon which we can start discussions,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilniu, Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia and Adrian Croft in Brussels; editing by Giles Elgood)

Ang decommissioning ceremony at pag-sasauli ng armas ng mga MILF combatants na pinangunahan nina Pangulong Benigno Aquino III at Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim kasama ang mga kinatawan sa pamahalaan at MILF nitong umaga ng Martes, Hunyo 16, 2015 sa Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. (Photoville International)

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Isang mahalagang hakbang sa usapang pangkapayapaan ang pagsasauli ng armas at decommissioning ng mga MILF combatant ngayong araw sa Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao na sinaksihan ni Pangulong Aquino.

Mahigit pitumpung armas na high-powered at crew-served weapons ang itinurn-over ng MILF na sa kasalukuyan ay sinisiyasat at ini-inventory ng independent decommissioning body bilang unang bahagi ng decommissioning program.

Kabilang sa mga itinurn-over sa IDB ay mga M1 Garand rifle, Browning automatic rifle, M14, M16a1, improvised sniper rifle, calibre 50 heavy machine gun, mortar, rocket launcher at grenade launcher.

Nasa 145 Bangsamoro islamic armed forces combatants ang nagparehisto at nai-proseso para sa decommissioning.

Ayon sa panig ng MILF, ito na ang pinakamahirap na hakbang na kanilang ginawa sa usapang pangkapayapaan.

Pahayag ni MILF Peace Panel Chief Mohagher Iqbal, “Frankly speaking, this decision is one of the most difficult decisions. We have met so far in more than 4 decades of harsh struggles.”

Salaysay naman ni MILF Central Committee Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, “But this is not about statistics. This is something deeply personal for us. As I look at the faces of each of our 145 brothers here this morning, I see 145 stories of struggle, of pain and hopelessness and even of death.

Ayon kay OPPAP Secretary Teresita Ging Deles, naglaan na ang pamahalaan na 2.4 billion pesos para sa socio-economic package sa decommissioning process upang matulungan sila sa kanilang pagbabagong buhay na walang hawak na armas.

Sinabi naman ni Pangulong Aquino na malaki ang ipinakitang pagtitiwala ng MILF sa pamahalaan dahil sa ginawa nilang pagsasauli ng armas.

“Ginagawa nga nila ito kahit nakabitin pa ang Bangsamoro Basic Law at mangyayari pa lang ang Bangsamoro Transition Authority, kaya hindi ko po masasabing sumusugal tayo sa pakikipag-usap sa MILF, tsambahan po ang sugal, wala kang hawak na pruweba sa kapalaran mo. Ito naman pong ginagawa natin ngayon ay napakatibay na patunay na buo at busilak na pakikiisa ng MILF sa ating usaping pangkayapaan at handang talikuran ang landas ng hidwaan.”

Binatikos ng pangulo ang ilang mambabatas na patuloy na humaharang sa draft BBL.

“Nakakalungkot nga po na ang gustong isagot ng ilan sa ating mga mambabatas sa imbitasyong. Ito ay itigil ang BBL, imbes na itanong, paano ko pa ba mapapabuti ang BBL para matugunan ang hinaing ng mga kababayan natin, tila pinagiisipan pa ng iba ay paano ko ba ito pipigilan o haharangin,” ani Pangulong Aquino.

Ang decommissioning program ay bahagi ng normalization annex ng comprehensive agreement on the Bangsamoro.

Ito ang proseso kung saan mula sa pagiging MILF combatants ay babalik na sila sa pamumuhay bilang sibilyan. (NEL MARIBOJOC / UNTV News)

Jun 14, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) shoots the ball against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) and guard Andre Iguodala (9) in game five of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. John G. Mabanglo-Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports

The Cleveland Cavaliers are undermanned, exhausted and facing an elimination game in the NBA Finals but LeBron James still likes his team’s chances of winning the championship series.

Following Sunday’s 104-91 loss in Oakland that put the top-seeded Golden State Warriors ahead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, a self-assured James explained why he remains confident in his team’s chances.

“I feel confident because I’m the best player in the world,” James, who led all players with 40 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists in the loss, told reporters. “It’s that simple.”

Few could dispute James’s self-assessment after another spectacular performance, where he posted his second triple-double of the series.

But it wasn’t enough to overcome a sensational performance by league MVP Stephen Curry, who scored 17 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach and the Warriors one win away from their first title in 40 years.

“I thought he was great,” James said after the game. “But that’s not why we lost. We gave up 18 fast break points. We gave up 15 second-chance points. Steph was special, obviously, but his hitting those step back threes is not why we lost the game.”

James said he would have to play better for his team to win, but it is his supporting cast that needs to improve to keep the Warriors from hoisting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy on the Cavaliers home floor on Tuesday.

Cleveland guard Matthew Dellavedova, who had a breakout performance in Game Three filling in for the injured Kyrie Irving, scored just five points in 41 minutes of play and was unable to contain Curry down the stretch.

And after a hot start shooting from beyond the arc, J.R. Smith faded later in the game, finishing with 14 points on 5 for 15 shooting.

A key question going into Game Six is whether Cleveland coach David Blatt will stick with the smaller, speedier lineup he used on Sunday, which battled well against the Warriors own small lineup until Curry’s explosive fourth quarter.

James said the inability of his team to get back in transition and coral offensive rebounds on missed Warriors free throws hurt his team, not the smaller lineup.

“We’re going home with a Game Six and we’ve got enough to win it,” James said. “We protect home, we come here. We’ll worry about Tuesday first. But if we protect home like we’re capable of doing, we force a Game Seven.”

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

Mula sa UNTV Weather Center, ito ang balita ni Rey Pelayo ukol sa lagay ng panahon.

PAGASA-DOST SATELLITE IMAGE June 16 2015 – 4 PM

Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015. REUTERS/U.S. NAVY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

China will soon complete some of its land reclamation on the Spratly islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, indicating that Beijing is close to setting up new outposts in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

The Foreign Ministry did not identify which of the seven reefs undergoing reclamation would be finished soon. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said their statement was already “quite detailed”.

China stepped up its creation of artificial islands last year, a move that has alarmed several countries in Asia and drawn growing criticism from Washington. There have been recent tensions between the Chinese navy and the U.S. military around the Spratlys.

“Based on our understanding from the relevant authorities, in accordance with the set work plan, the land reclamation project for China’s construction on some islands and reefs on the Nansha islands will be completed soon,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, using the Chinese name for the Spratlys.

It gave no timeframe.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.

U.S. officials have said the pace and scale of China’s reclamation work far outstripped that of other claimants. One official has said that before January 2014, China had only reclaimed about five hectares, but this had soared to 2,000 acres (800 hectares), expanding the acreage on outposts it occupies by over four hundred times.

Recent satellite images show a hive of building and other work on the new islands.

Military facilities for example are under construction on Fiery Cross Reef, including a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway and airborne early warning radars, which could be operational by the year-end, according to one U.S. commander.

The Foreign Ministry reiterated China’s stance that the islands would help with maritime search and rescue, disaster relief, environmental protection and offer navigational assistance as well as have undefined military purposes.

After reclamation was complete, China would build facilities to “fulfill the relevant functions”, it said.

The construction was within the scope of China’s sovereignty, the Foreign Ministry said, adding it would not affect freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea.

U.S. officials are concerned that China may declare an exclusion zone in the area that could limit the movement of ships and aircraft.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Jun 16, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; The Golden State Warriors celebrate with the Larry O’Brien Trophy after beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in game six of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

The Golden State Warriors beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-97 on Tuesday to win the NBA Finals for the first time in 40 years.

The Warriors, who were the top-seeded team in the playoffs after finishing with the best record in the regular season, won the best-of-seven championship series 4-2.

Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala led the way for the Warriors, each contributing 25 points in the win.

James once again led the way for the injury-hit Cavaliers by pouring in a game-high 32 points.

With the win, Golden State became the first NBA team to win a title behind a roster without any previous finals experience since the 1991 Chicago Bulls.

(Editing by Andrew Both)

Jun 16, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala (9) reacts during the fourth quarter of game six of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Golden State’s Andre Iguodala was named Most Valuable Player of the NBA finals.

The 31-year-old veteran scored 25 points in the deciding Game Six on Tuesday as the Warriors clinched the championship.

He edged out Cleveland’s LeBron James for the award.

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina.)