A man checks the wreckage of a car at the site of a car bomb attack in Yemen’s catpital Sanaa June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Car bombs killed or injured at least 50 people near mosques and the headquarters of Yemen’s dominant Houthi group in Sanaa on Wednesday, in coordinated attacks claimed by Islamic State.

The four blasts rocked the capital as Saudi-led forces conducted more air strikes against Houthi military bases across Yemen and Houthi delegates attending peace talks in Switzerland reported the first tentative progress on the second day of a U.N.-sponsored push for a Ramadan truce.

A security official said at least 50 people were killed or wounded in the attacks on the Hashush mosque, the Kibsi mosque, the al-Qubah al-Khadra mosque and the political bureau of the Ansarullah movement of the Houthis, who belong to the Zaydi sect of Shi’ite Islam.

“The explosion was so loud I thought it was caused by an air strike,” said a man in his 70s named Ali, who had just left a mosque when a bomb went off.

“I returned and found cars burning, people screaming and wounded people all over.”

The Sunni Muslim Islamic State said in a statement posted online it carried out the attacks.

“The soldiers of the Islamic State in Yemen, in a wave of military operations as revenge for the Muslims against the Houthi apostates, (detonated) four car bombs near the centers of Houthi apostasy,” it said.

The attack is the most serious of its kind in Yemen since suicide bombers killed at least 137 worshippers and wounded hundreds during Friday prayers at two mosques in Sanaa on March 20, in attacks also claimed by Islamic State.

The Houthi-controlled state news agency quoted an official blaming Islamic State for the latest bombings. Supporters of Islamic State exchanged celebratory messages on social media.

Islamic State has recently stepped up its operations in Yemen, where Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also Sunni Islamist, had long dominated the militant scene.

AQAP recently suffered a serious blow when a U.S. drone strike killed its leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi.

HOUSE DESTROYED

Earlier on Wednesday Houthi fighters in central Yemen blew up the home of a senior politician, Abdel-Aziz Jubari, while he was attending the Geneva talks as a member of the exiled government’s delegation.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla told Reuters in Geneva the peace talks had “made no progress”.

Residents of Dhamar city said the Houthis, who had taken over Jubari’s house in April, dynamited the building early in the morning. Yemeni websites published pictures of its collapsed roof on a pile of rubble.

Jubari, who is deputy head of the delegation sent to Geneva by ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said he was shocked when he heard the news.

“Of course my house is not the only house in Yemen,” he told Reuters in Geneva. “A lot of people’s homes and properties have been targeted in an unbelievable way.”

Abdulla, the head of the government delegation, said: “It is in this spirit of revenge that they are dealing with all the Yemeni people and we cannot remain silent on this.”

Houthi officials were not immediately available to comment on the incident.

The Houthis seized Sanaa in September and pressed into the country’s center and south, forcing Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh.

They say they are campaigning against corruption and years of political marginalization.

A coalition of Arab states headed by Saudi Arabia has been bombing the Houthis and their Yemeni army allies since March 26.

Their aim is to restore Hadi to power and head off what they see as Shi’ite Iran’s expansion in the region. The Houthis deny receiving military backing from Iran.

More than 2,600 civilians and combatants have been killed since March and a humanitarian crisis is looming as supplies of food, medicine and other goods run short.

CEASEFIRE CHANCES DAMPENED

In Geneva, the U.N’s special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has been conducting shuttle diplomacy between the two sides.

Early on Wednesday Abdulla played down the prospects of a quick ceasefire deal, saying his team still wanted the implementation of a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding the Houthis quit cities they have seized since September. He said he did not want a truce merely “for the sake of publicity”.

U.N. envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he remained optimistic. But Abdulla said the Houthis had not formed their negotiating team by early evening.

Hours later, after meeting the U.N. envoy, Hamza Al Houthi who leads Houthi delegation, told reporters talks would continue on Thursday. “There is progress on some ideas and issues.”

Houthi delegate Ali Imad said: “There was greater openness and acceptance from the U.N. envoy. All these are signs that today we are moving towards building the first step to resolving this crisis.”

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Ahmed Tolba in Cairo and Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by William Maclean and Ralph Boulton)

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) meets with Philippine’s President Benigno Aquino inside Malacanang presidential palace in Manila, Philippines, April 28, 2014. REUTERS/Francis R. Malasig/Pool

A U.S.-Philippine defense agreement that would help counter China’s growing naval power in the disputed South China Sea has yet to be implemented more than a year after it was signed, and could now face a fresh political hurdle in Manila.

The deal gives U.S. troops wide access to local military bases and approval to build facilities to store fuel and equipment for maritime security, but it was effectively frozen after left-wing politicians and other opponents challenged its constitutionality in the Philippine Supreme Court last year.

The court is expected to issue a ruling before U.S. President Barack Obama visits Manila for an Asia-Pacific summit in November. The deal, called an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), was signed just days before Obama last traveled to Manila in April 2014.

In another complication, 13 senators in the 24-member Philippine Senate have signed a draft resolution insisting the upper house scrutinize the deal before it takes effect.

“In this resolution, we are saying we will not allow the power of the Senate to be eroded,” Senator Miriam Santiago, the principal author of the measure, said in a statement last week. The proposed resolution will be lodged in late July, when the Senate reconvenes after a recess.

While a Senate resolution would not be binding on President Benigno Aquino, it would put pressure on him to allow senators to debate the agreement, which would delay it further, Philippine political experts told Reuters.

With national elections due in May 2016, politicians are already focusing on who will contest the presidency when Aquino steps down, possibly putting some congressional business on the back-burner. The Philippine constitution allows presidents to only serve a single six-year term.

“Aquino is increasingly losing his power to influence Congress,” said political expert Ramon Casiple.

Further delays might raise eyebrows in Washington, experts said, given Manila has been the most vocal critic of Beijing among the claimants to the South China Sea and has urged the United States to be more assertive in pushing back against China’s rapid land reclamation in the waterway.

Senators have said they also want to review an agreement to be negotiated with Tokyo that would allow Japanese military aircraft and naval vessels to use bases in the Philippines for refueling and picking up supplies.

The Senate has ratified previous Philippine defense agreements, including a decades-old security treaty with the United States.

Aquino has said the EDCA only needs executive approval because it’s an addition to existing security arrangements.

BASE ACCESS

To be sure, U.S.-Philippine military ties are already robust.

Philippine military officials say there has been an increase in U.S. exercises, training and ship and aircraft visits in the past year under Obama’s “rebalance” to Asia.

But the EDCA would take the relationship a step further, partly by giving U.S. forces broad access to the Philippines.

Washington for example wants to use Philippine military bases in eight locations to rotate troops, aircraft and ships, the Philippine military chief said in April.

One of those is a base on Palawan island, about 160 km (100 miles) from the Spratly islands, where China’s creation of seven artificial outposts will allow Beijing to project power into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

The agreement would also allow the U.S. military to build infrastructure such as barracks, logistic warehouses and fuel depots for its visiting forces.

U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Pool, a Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged that the court process had delayed implementation.

“There have been informal, working-level discussions of potential locations and next steps, but no final decisions have been made nor are there any plans to begin implementing the EDCA until the Supreme Court completes its review,” said Pool.

WRONG SIGNAL

A Senate resolution on the EDCA would not go unnoticed at the court, the Philippine political experts added.

While the court is independent, it would be taking note of the political winds while also paying attention to concerns over China’s muscle flexing in the South China Sea, they said.

Even if the court ruled the agreement was constitutional, it might say it needed Senate approval, they said.

Theodore Te, the Supreme Court spokesman, said the resolution would not influence the court’s decision, although he noted that the issue of a Senate review of the defense deal had been raised during oral arguments in court.

Any delays in the court decision could send a signal to Beijing that Manila was uncertain about its alliance with the United States, said Ernest Bower, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“If the Supreme Court does not move expeditiously on the EDCA and the agreement is not in place before Obama’s visit, the White House will have to ask whether the Philippines is serious about implementing its treaty alliance with the United States,” Bower wrote recently.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Dean Yates)

Jun 16, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) walks off the court after loosing to the Golden State Warriors in game six of the NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James has tasted defeat four times in NBA Finals now but that does not make it any easier to swallow. In fact, losing to Golden State hurt so much he would rather miss out on the playoffs altogether than lose another championship series.

James led the way for Cleveland with 32 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists in Game Six on Tuesday but it was not enough to carry the Cavaliers to victory over the Warriors.

Golden State picked up their first title in 40 years with the 105-97 win in Cleveland.

“When you fall short it hurts,” James told reporters. “I’m starting to (think) I’d rather not even make the playoffs than to lose in the Finals. It would hurt a lot (less).”

James finished with averages of 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists for the six games, becoming the first player to lead both teams in total points, rebounds and assists in a Finals series.

There was talk he could follow Jerry West (1969) and become just the second player to win the Finals MVP despite losing the series, but that honor went to Golden State’s Andre Iguodala, who hounded James throughout the matchup.

In the end, effort could not make up for a depleted roster.

The Cavs lost All Star guard Kyrie Irving to a knee injury in the series opener and All Star forward Kevin Love to a shoulder ailment in the first round of the playoffs.

“We never asked for sympathy when they went down,” said coach David Blatt. “We never made an excuse and I certainly won’t do that now. The Warriors were better.”

The result of losing two key players was that Cleveland had to feed James the ball more, but the increased workload saw him make just 39 percent of his shots.

“I don’t enjoy being as non-efficient as I was. I don’t enjoy dribbling the ball for countless seconds on the shot clock with the team looking at me to make a play,” James said.

“That’s not winning basketball. It was what I had to do, what was needed. We ran out of talent.”

(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

FILE PHOTO: Ang dating commander ng Eastern Mindanao Command o EastMinCom ng Armed Forces of the Philippines na si retired Lt. General Rainier Cruz III (PHOTOVILLE International)

MANILA, Philippines — Itinalaga ni Pangulong Benigno Aquino III si retired Lt. General Rainier Cruz III bilang bagong director general ng Bureau of Corrections o BuCor.

Pinalitan ni Cruz si Franklin Jesus Bucayu.

Si Cruz ay nagsilbing commander ng Eastern Mindanao Command mula 2013 hanggang 2014.

Naglingkod din ito bilang assistant division commander ng 10th Infantry Division ng Philippine Army mula 2011 hanggang 2012.

Samantala, itinalaga naman ng pangulo si Attorney Jose Luis Martin Gascon bilang bagong chair ng Commission on Human Rights kapalit ni Etta Rosales.

Na-appoint naman sina Karen Gomez, Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana at Leah Tanodra-Armamento bilang mga commissioner ng CHR.

Matatapos ang kanilang termino sa May 2022. (NEL MARIBOJOC / UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: Isang bahagi ng nasunog na Kentex factory sa Valenzuela (MON JOCSON / UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines — Nakahanda nang magsumite ng rekomendasyon ang DOJ special panel na nag-iimbestiga sa nasunog na pabrika ng Kentex sa Valenzuela City.

Magpupulong sa Biyernes ang panel na naatasang mag-review sa mga kasong maaring isampa sa mga responsible sa nangyaring sunog sa pabrika ng tsinelas.

Ayon sa isa sa mga myembro ng panel na tumangging magpabangit ng pangalan, may nakahanda nang rekomendasyon o kaso na.

Isasampa laban sa mga responsable sa insidente kabilang na rito ang reckless imprudence resulting to multiple homicide.

Tumanggi naman itong magsalita kung anong kaso ang maaring isampa laban sa ilang opisyal ng gobyerno kaugnay ng insidente.

Binuo ni Secretary Leila de Lima ang panel upang rebyuhin ang mga opisyal na ulat ng gobyerno tungkol sa nangyaring sunog, pangunahin na ang report ng inter-agency anti-arson task force, upang matukoy kung sinu-sino ang dapat panagutin sa trahedya. (RODERIC MENDOZA / UNTV News)

A Syrian refugee woman from the northern Syrian town of Tel Abyad and her child wait while spending the day in Akcakale, in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 18, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Almost 60 million people worldwide were forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution at the end of last year, the highest ever recorded number, the U.N. refugee agency said on Thursday.

More than half the displaced from crises including Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia were children, UNHCR said in its annual Global Trends Report.

In 2014, an average of 42,500 people became refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced every day, representing a four-fold increase in just four years, the aid agency said.

“We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement as well as the response required is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres in a statement.

UNHCR said Syria where conflict has raged since 2011, was the world’s biggest source of internally displaced people and refugees.

There were 7.6 million displaced people in Syria by the end of last year and almost 4 million Syrian refugees, mainly living in the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

“Even amid such sharp growth in numbers, the global distribution of refugees remains heavily skewed away from wealthier nations and towards the less wealthy,” UNHCR said.

UNHCR said there were 38.2 million displaced by conflict within national borders, almost five million more than a year before, with wars in Ukraine, South Sudan, Nigeria, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo swelling the figures.

Of the 19.5 million refugees living outside their home countries, 5.1 million are Palestinians. Syrians, Somalis and Afghans make up more than half the remaining 14.4 million refugees, UNHCR said.

It also noted that more than 1.6 million people sought political asylum in a foreign country last year, a jump of more than 50 percent compared to the previous year – largely due to the 270,000 Ukrainians who submitted asylum claims in Russia.

While many conflicts have erupted or reignited in the past five years, few have been conclusively resolved. Just 126,800 refugees were able to return home in 2014, the lowest number in 31 years, UNHCR said.

“It is now absolutely clear that we are not able to deliver,” Guterres said. “It is time for the international community to assume its responsibilities.”

(Reporting By Joseph D’Urso; Editing by Katie Nguyen; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James shakes hands with Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry during the fourth quarter of game six of the NBA Finals in Cleveland, June 16, 2015. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James carried his Cleveland Cavaliers on a thrilling playoff run but in the end, the weight of a city and an undermanned team on his shoulders proved too much to handle even for the game’s best player.

James delivered an NBA Finals performance for the ages but his hopes of snapping the city of Cleveland’s half-century-long championship drought were put on ice for at least another year by the Golden State Warriors.

“When you fall short, it hurts and it eats at you, and it hurts me to know that I wish I could have done better and done more and just put a little bit more effort or whatever the case may be to help us get over the hump,” James told reporters. “But it just wasn’t our time.”

Injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving during the playoffs and to Anderson Varejao in the regular season left the four-time league Most Valuable Player with nothing more than a cast of role players and aging parts in a quest for a third NBA title.

James, the only remaining boldface name on a Cavaliers roster, did more than anyone could have expected but even his on-court heroics and eye-popping stats were not enough to hide the Cavaliers’ shortcomings.

The best player of his generation threw everything he could at Golden State, averaging 35.8 points per game along with 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists in six games, including a pair of triple-doubles.

James also delivered three 40-point games that left him one shy of the record set by Hall of Famers Jerry West (1969) and Michael Jordan (1993).

But the Cavaliers’ supporting cast was so depleted that whenever James would seek some rest after getting his team back in a game or building a lead, his teammates were never able to make his hard work stand.

“I’ve had a lot of playoff runs, been on both ends, and I know one thing that you’ve got to have during the playoff run,” said James. “You’ve got to be healthy. You’ve got to be playing great at the right time. You’ve got to have a little luck.

“And we were playing great, but we had no luck and we weren’t healthy.”

The 30-year-old forward, playing his first season back in Cleveland after winning two championships in four seasons with the Miami Heat, was forced adopt a playing style that was out of character for someone who prides himself on efficiency.

With mediocre ball handlers in Cleveland and key players missing, James was forced to hang on to the ball much more than usual while also taking more shots.

The approach worked for a while but the Warriors made the necessary adjustments.

Still, when James left the court with 10 seconds remaining in Tuesday’s game and the result all but official, the home crowd gave him a rousing applause while chanting “M-V-P.”

“We had two big-time playmakers on the sideline. We’ve got another one that’s been out since early in the season,” said James. “If I could give more, I would have done it, but I gave everything I had.”

(Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)

Police lead suspected shooter Dylann Roof, 21, into the courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina, June 18, 2015. REUTERS/Jason Miczek

A white man was arrested on Thursday on suspicions he killed nine people at a historic African-American church in South Carolina after sitting with them for an hour of Bible study in an attack U.S. officials are investigating as a hate crime.

The mass shooting set off an intense 14-hour manhunt that ended when 21-year-old Dylann Roof was arrested in a traffic stop about 220 miles (350 km) north of Charleston, South Carolina, where the shooting occurred, officials said.

Wednesday’s mass shooting at the almost 200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, comes after a year of turmoil and protests over race relations, policing and criminal justice in the United States. A series of police killings of unarmed black men has sparked a renewed civil rights movement under the “Black Lives Matter” banner.

Four pastors, including Democratic state Senator Clementa Pinckney, 41, were among the six women and three men shot dead at the church nicknamed “Mother Emanuel,” which was burned to the ground in the late 1820s after a slave revolt led by one of its founders.

“The fact that this took place in a black church obviously raises questions about a dark part of our history,” said U.S. President Barack Obama. “Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun.”

The United States has seen a series of mass shootings in recent years, including the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults. Democratic efforts to reform the nation’s gun laws, protect by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, failed after that incident.

GIFT OF A GUN

A man who identified himself as Carson Cowles, Roof’s uncle, told Reuters that Roof’s father had recently given him a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present and that Roof had seemed adrift.

“I don’t have any words for it,” Cowles, 56, said in a telephone interview. “Nobody in my family had seen anything like this coming.”

Roof was armed with a handgun but surrendered peacefully at his arrest, said Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen.

In a Facebook profile apparently belonging to Roof, a portrait showed him wearing a jacket emblazoned with the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and of the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, both formerly ruled by white minorities. Many of his Facebook friends were black.

Roof was arrested on two separate occasions at a shopping mall earlier this year for a drug offense and trespassing, according to court documents.

Roof’s mother, Amy, declined to comment when reached by phone.

“We will be doing no interviews, ever,” she said before hanging up.

Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Pinckney, told MSNBC that a survivor told her the gunman reloaded five times during the attack despite pleas for him to stop.

“He just said, ‘I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country,” Johnson said.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said her office was investigating whether to charge Roof with a hate crime motivated by racial or other prejudice.

Under federal and some state laws, such crimes typically carry harsher penalties, but South Carolina is one of just five U.S. states not to have a hate-crimes law.

RISING RACIAL TENSIONS

Demonstrations have rocked New York, Baltimore, Ferguson in Missouri and other U.S. cities following police killings of unarmed black men including Eric Garner, Freddie Gray and Michael Brown.

A white police officer was charged with murder after he shot Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, in the back in April in neighboring North Charleston.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which researches U.S. hate groups, said the attack illustrates the dangers that home-grown extremists pose.

“Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of Jihadi terrorism. But the horrific tragedy at the Emanuel AME reminds us that the threat of homegrown domestic terrorism is very real,” the group said in a statement, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

There have been 4,120 reported hate crimes across the United States, including 56 murders, since 2003, the center said.

Other victims included three church pastors: DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49, Sharonda Coleman Singleton, 45 and Reverend Daniel Simmons, 74; Cynthia Hurd, a 54-year-old employee of the Charleston County Public Library, and Susie Jackson, 87; Ethel Lance, 70, Tywanza Sanders, 26, and Myra Thompson 59, an associate pastor at the church, according to the county coroner.

“This is going to put a lot of concern to every black church when guys have to worry about getting shot in the church,” said Tamika Brown, who attended one of several overflow prayer vigils held at Charleston churches.

Police in Charleston responded to multiple bomb threats around the city through the course of the day on Thursday.

Three people survived the attack.

“It is a very, very sad day in South Carolina,” Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, in a tearful statement.

That grief rang hollow for some civil-rights activists, who noted that the state capital in Columbia still flies the Confederate flag, the rallying symbol of the pro-slavery South during the Civil War.

“The reality that racism is alive and well and that we have a problem with guns,” said Clayborne Carson, founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. “People will throw up their hands and say ‘how terrible’ and the governor of South Carolina will put the Confederate flag of the state at half staff and then will get back to passing more laws that allow people to carry guns.”

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Brian Snyder in Charleston; Julia Edwards in Washington; Emily Flitter and Alana Wise in New York; David Adams in Miami; Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida; Randall Hill in Charleston, South Carolina; Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by James Dalgleish and Lisa Shumaker)

Dylann Roof is pictured in this undated photo taken from his Facebook account. Roof is suspected of fatally shooting nine people at a historically black South Carolina church in Charleston on June 18, 2015.

His uncle worried he was cooped up in his room too much. The few images of him found easily online suggest he had a fascination with white supremacy, publicly embracing its symbols. And for his birthday this year, his father bought the young man a pistol, the uncle said.

Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of having fatally shot nine people at a historic African-American church in South Carolina. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Wednesday’s attack as a hate crime, motivated by racism or other prejudice.

Those who know Roof described a withdrawn, drifting young man. Roof himself told a police officer who was arresting him earlier this year for illegal possession of prescription painkillers that his parents were pressuring him to get a job.

Roof’s uncle, Carson Cowles, recalled telling his sister, the suspect’s mother, several years ago that he was worried about Roof, and that the “quiet, soft-spoken boy” was too introverted.

“I said he was like 19 years old, he still didn’t have a job, a driver’s license or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time,” Cowles said in a telephone interview.

Roof appears to have had difficulties at school. He had to repeat his first year at White Knoll High School but left mid-way through his second attempt, according to the local school district. He then went to Dreher High School in a different district for the final three months of the academic year before leaving in 2010. Neither district had records of him completing high school.

Cowles tried to “mentor” his nephew. “He didn’t like that, and me and him kind of drifted apart,” Cowles said.

Cowles, 56, said Roof’s father gave him a .45-caliber pistol for his birthday this year.

“I actually talked to him on the phone briefly for just a few moments and he was saying, ‘Well I’m outside target practicing with my new gun,'” Cowles said, describing a phone call around the time of Roof’s birthday in April.

“Nobody in my family had seen anything like this coming,” Cowles said, speaking shortly before news of Roof’s arrest. “If it is him, and when they catch him, he’s got to pay for this.”

MALL INCIDENTS

In February, Roof unnerved employees working at the Columbiana Centre shopping mall in Columbia, South Carolina, by asking what they told police were unusual questions about staffing levels and closing times.

A patrolling police officer was called over. Roof, becoming increasingly nervous, told him “his parents were pressuring him to get a job,” according to a Columbia Police Department incident report.

The officer asked to search him and found an unlabeled bottle filled with strips of Suboxone, a form of the opioid painkiller buprenorphine that is sometimes misused by people addicted to other powerful opioid drugs, such as oxycodone or heroin.

The incident report said Roof tried to pass them off as breath-freshening strips before admitting that a friend had given the prescription-only drug to him, and the officer arrested him for possession of a controlled substance. The case appeared to be still pending, according to county court records.

Columbiana Centre banned Roof for a year, but two months later, police were called to the mall again. Roof, described as 5 foot 9 inches (1.75 meters) tall and weighing 120 lb (54 kg), was arrested in the parking lot for trespassing. His car was turned over to his mother. The mall increased the ban to three years.

It was not immediately clear whether Roof had a lawyer.

APARTHEID-ERA, RHODESIAN FLAGS

Signs of Roof’s embrace of symbols of the white supremacy movement could be seen in a Facebook profile apparently belonging to Roof, which was created earlier this year. The only publicly visible photograph on the page showed him looking glumly at the camera, bowl-cut brown hair falling over his forehead.

In the picture, he wears a black jacket that prominently features the flags of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and apartheid-era South Africa from when the two African countries were ruled by the white minority.

Roof’s profile listed him as having a little over 80 Facebook friends on Thursday morning, but that number appeared to be dropping, perhaps as others chose to sever their online ties with him. A large number of the Facebook friends were black. By the afternoon, the profile appeared to have been removed from Facebook.

One of the friends, Derrick Pearson, wrote on his own Facebook page on Thursday morning he did not talk to Roof and, before the arrest, warned people to stay away from Roof if they saw him, writing that it was “obvious lives do not matter to him.” Pearson also published a photo that appeared to show Roof sitting on the hood of a black car with a license plate that says “Confederate States of America”, a reference to the pro-slavery forces from the U.S. Civil War.

“That’s his car,” Pearson wrote.

Roof was born about three years after his parents had divorced and grew up shuttling between his parents’ homes in South Carolina, according to his uncle and the parents’ divorce papers. His father, Ben Roof, runs his own construction business, and he remarried after divorcing Dylann Roof’s mother.

Roof and his older sister, Amber, lived part of the time with their father and the father’s wife, Paige, until Ben and Paige divorced.

Amber Roof, 27, is engaged to be married and a profile on TheKnot.com shows her wedding is scheduled for Sunday in Lexington, South Carolina.

(Story refiles to add dropped word ‘as’ in 14th paragraph, and dropped word ‘a’ in 19th paragraph)

(Reporting by Emily Flitter; Additional reporting by Alana Wise and David Gaffen; Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Frances Kerry)

A woman wearing a mask walks past an information banner on Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) at the entrance of Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute at a hospital in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, June 19, 2015. REUTERS/CHAIWAT SUBPRASOM

Thai authorities took nearly four days to confirm the country’s first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the health ministry said on Friday, a time lag likely to raise fears of a further spread of the deadly virus in Asia.

Thailand confirmed its first case of MERS on Thursday, a 75-year-old businessman from Oman, just as an outbreak in South Korea that began last month and has infected 166 people, and killed 24 of them, appeared to be leveling off.

The infected man arrived in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Monday on an Oman Air flight for medical treatment for a heart ailment at a private hospital.

Public Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin declined to identify the hospital and said the patient had been put in quarantine at an infectious diseases institute in Bangkok on Thursday.

“It took about four days to diagnose this case and two lab tests,” Rajata told Reuters.

Authorities wanted to monitor all 106 people on board the man’s flight, he said, though it was not clear how everyone could be traced.

Among those being monitored were the man’s two sons, who were considered at high risk because of their proximity to their father. The two had been tested and results were due later on Friday, Rajata said.

Shares in Thai aviation companies and hotels fell on Friday with hotel operator Central Plaza Hotel plunging 6.6 percent. Airports operator Airports of Thailand dropped 4.2 percent to a more than three-week low.

MERS was first identified in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and the majority of cases have been in the Middle East.

Isolated cases have cropped up in Asia before South Korea’s outbreak began last month, and Thailand is the fourth Asian country to register a case.

China has had one case recently, that of a South Korean man who traveled to China via Hong Kong despite authorities suggesting he stay in voluntary quarantine at home.

WORST OVER IN KOREA?

South Korea’s outbreak, the largest outside Saudi Arabia, has been traced to a 68-year-old man who returned from a business trip to the Middle East in early May.

It has spread through hospitals with all of its infections known to have occurred in healthcare facilities.

The outbreak in South Korea appeared to have peaked, with just one new case reported on Friday and the number of people in quarantine down 12 percent to 5,930, though authorities were taking no chances.

“Given the current developments, we have judged that it has leveled off, but we need to watch further spread, further cases from so-called intensive control hospitals,” the South Korean health ministry’s chief policy official, Kwan Deok-cheol, told a briefing in Seoul.

As part of those efforts, South Korean authorities were contacting nearly 42,000 people who had visited a hospital in the capital, Seoul, which is at the center of the outbreak, with half of the country’s infections happening there.

Thailand was screening passengers from countries seen at risk of MERS and stepping up public information about the virus, another health official said.

The Middle East is an important source of tourists for Thailand with arrivals from the region up by nearly 50 percent in January, according to the tourism office.

Bangkok is also one of the region’s main aviation hubs.

The vast majority of MERS infections have been in Saudi Arabia, where more than 1,000 people have been infected since 2012, and about 454 have died. There is no cure.

(The story corrects age in paragraph 14)

(Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak, Ju-min Park and Tony Munroe in SEOUL; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Most of those under observation had been told to stay at home for 14 days.

The Thai case will compound fears in Asia of a repeat of a 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARIS), which began in China and killed about 800 people globally.

Jeralean Talley, the world’s oldest-known living person, is escorted down the aisle following a church service and celebration for her 116th birthday in Inkster, Michigan May 24, 2015. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Jeralean Talley, the world’s oldest-known person, has died in Michigan 26 days after her 116th birthday, a family spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Born on May 23, 1899, Talley climbed to the top of a list kept by the Gerontology Research Group, which validates the agesof the world’s longest-living people, after Gertrude Weaver died at 116 in Arkansas in April.

Talley died on Wednesday night in her home in Inkster, a Detroit suburb, which she shared with her daughter, Thelma Holloway, 77, said Christonna Campbell, a family spokeswoman.

“She was just a beautiful woman,” Campbell said. “We enjoyed her words of wisdom.” Talley was born in Georgia and moved to Michigan in 1935 with her husband, Alfred Talley, for his job at a Ford plant. He died in 1988.

Robert Young, director of the Gerontology Research Group’s Supercentenarian Research and Database Division, said Talley’s death came as a surprise as she lived an active lifestyle.

“She was walking around as of a few weeks ago,” Young said.

The next person who could possibly claim status as the oldest in the world is Susannah Mushatt Jones, who is 115, Young said. Born in Alabama, she is living at the Vandalia Senior Center in Brooklyn, New York, a representative for the center confirmed on Thursday.Talley was an active member in the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Inkster. Services for Talley will be held on June 27 at the church.

(Reporting by Serena Maria Daniels; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Peter Cooney)

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Usec. Abigail Valte (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines — Handa ang Malakanyang na idepensa sa Korte Suprema ang legalidad ng Malakanyang, handang idepensa sa Korte Suprema ang Framework on the Bangsamoro (FAB) at Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB).

Ito ang pahayag ng Malakanyang matapos mag-file ng magkahiwalay na petition ngayong Biyernes sa Korte Suprema ang Philippine Constitution Association at si dating Congressman Jacinto Paras ng Negros Oriental upang hilingin na ipatigil ang implementasyon ng FAB at CAB.

Ayon kay Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte, handa ang ehekutibo na sagutin ang isyung ito kung iuutos ng Korte Suprema, ipinagtataka naman ng Malakanyang kung bakit ngayon lamang hinamon ang legalidad ng FAB at CAB gayong mahigit isang taon na ito mula nang malagdaan.

“Government will be ready to answer once the Supreme Court directs us to do so. It is interesting that these challenges to the FAB and CAB come at this time, more than a year after both were signed,” ani USec. Abigail Valte. (UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: Si President Benigno S. Aquino lll sa pagsaksi sa turnover ceremony ng balangkas ng Bangsamoro Basic Law sa pagitan ng Bangsamoro Transition Commission Chairman Mohagher Iqbal at Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles kina Speaker of the House Feliciano Belmonte Jr. at Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, during ceremonies sa Malacañan Palace noong September 10, 2014. (Photo by the Malacañang Photo Bureau)

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — Hindi tutol  si dating National Security Adviser Jose Almonte sa Bangsamoro Bill.

Ayon kay Almonte dapat lamang ay naayon ang panukalang batas sa konstitusyon at katanggap-tanggap sa taumbayan kapag naging batas na ito.

Sinabi rin ng dating National Security Adviser na dapat na bigyang pagkakataon ang MILF na maipakita ang kanilang sinseridad sa usang pangkapayaan at huwag kaagad itong husgahan.

Dagdag pa ni Almonte, dapat ding konsultahin ng mga mambabatas ang iba pang grupo tulad ng MNLF upang maiwasan ang pagsulpot muli ng iba pang grupo na kakalaban sa pamahalaan.

“Whatever our people want collectively, if that is the process of getting the opinion of the people accepted by everybody. And I think that will be a very credible law,” ani Almonte. (UNTV News)

A woman wearing a mask to prevent contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) walks at an underground shopping district in Seoul, South Korea, June 19, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

South Korea reported three new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome on Sunday, bringing the total to 169 in the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia, but Thailand said it had no new infections.

South Korea’s Health Ministry late on Saturday reported the 25th fatality, a patient who had suffered a heart ailment and diabetes. The outbreak was first confirmed on May 20 but seems to have leveled off, the ministry said on Friday.

Thailand, which discovered its first case last week, says 175 people were exposed to its single patient, with no new infections reported so far.

“We can confirm that there are no new MERS patients,” said Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin as he led reporters on a tour of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport to show health and safety measures that have been put in place, including thermoscans for passengers.

Bangkok is one of the region’s main aviation hubs and tourism accounts for 10 percent of the Thai economy. Thai tourism minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said tourism had not been hit.

MERS was first identified in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and the majority of cases have been in the Middle East. Scientists are not sure of the origin of the virus, but several studies have linked it to camels.

Isolated cases have cropped up in Asia before South Korea’s outbreak.

(Reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Jack Kim; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Boeing 787 Dreamliner belonging to Polish airline LOT flies after taking off from the Chopin International Airport in Warsaw June 1, 2013. REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL

Around 1,400 passengers of the Polish airline LOT were grounded at Warsaw’s Chopin airport on Sunday after hackers attacked the airline ground computer systems used to issue flight plans, the company said.

The computer system was hacked in the afternoon and fixed after around five hours, during which 10 of the state-owned carrier’s national and international flights were canceled and about a dozen more delayed, spokesman Adrian Kubicki said.

LOT was taking care of the passengers on Sunday evening and some were already able to board flights. LOT said it was providing hotels for those who needed to stay overnight.

At no point was the safety of ongoing flights compromised, Kubicki said, and flights destined for Warsaw were able to land safely. No other airports were affected, he added.

“We’re using state-of-the-art computer systems, so this could potentially be a threat to others in the industry,” Kubicki said. The attack in now being investigated by the authorities.

The airport itself was not affected, its spokesman said.

(Reporting by Wiktor Szary; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Si Nino Alejandro sa pagbibigay buhay sa likhang obra ni Dennis Avenido na “Ang Pagmamahal Mo” na siyang tinanghal na ASOP Song of the Week. (MADZ MILANA / Photoville International)

MANILA, Philippines — Pagkatanggap pa lamang ng study material ng awiting “Ang Pagmamahal Mo” ang singer na si Nino Alejandro para i-interpret nya sa A Song of Praise o ASOP Music Festival 3rd weekly elimination round, nakipag-ugnayan na ito sa composer na si Dennis Avenido sa pag-aayos ng naturang komposisyon.

Pahayag ni Nino, “I just wanted to make sure na kasi may nabanggit nga ni Doc Mon na may mga ibang structures ‘yung ginawa ni Dennis. Sinisigurado ko nga lang na ‘yung mga melodies na ganyan… para maklaro lang, kasi ang gusto ko talaga i-justify ‘yung piyesa na crineate niya and just to make sure that I can do it. Yung pinaka-best na ‘yun nga.”

Napansin naman ng mga huradong sina singer comedian Arnel Ignacio, OPM icon Ivy Violan at Doktor Musiko Mon del Rosario ang maayos na pagkakalikha ng naturang awit.

Kapansin-pansin din ang confidence ni Nino sa pag-interpret ng naturang awit dahil na rin sa karagdagang input niya rito.

“Thank you. (I’m) honoured, honoured sa mga kind words na sinabi nila. I just do my best na to siguraduhin ko na maramdaman ko ‘yung kanta ko. Kasi ako, I have to believe it kung kakantahin ko,” pahayag ni Alejandro.

Tinalo nito ang mga awiting “Balutin Mo ng Pag-Ibig” ni Cesar Salameda na ininterpret ng band vocalist na si Jek Manuel at “God Speaks” ng ASOP 2013 grand finalist na si Paul Hildawa na ininterpret naman nina theater artist Gian Gloria at Viva male belter na si Carl Trazo. (ADJES CARREON / UNTV News) 

(Left-Right) PNP-OIC P/DDG Leonardo Espina, DILG Sec. Mar Roxas at President Benigno Aquino III (Photo by Ryan Lim / Malacañang Photo Bureau)

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — Malabo nang mailagay sa pinakamataas na posisyon sa Pambansang Pulisya ang mga heneral na magreretiro na sa serbisyo bago ang buwan ng Hunyo ng susunod na taon.

Ayon kay NAPOLCOM chairman at Department of the Interior and Local Government Sec. Mar Roxas ang mga kandidatong pinagpipilian para sa posisyon ng pinuno ng Pambansang Pulisya ay mga star rank na ang serbisyo’y lampas pa ng June 2016.

Pahayag ni DILG Sec. Mar Roxas, “Ayaw ng Pangulo na kung sino ang mapipili na sa gitna ng kanyang term na magre-retire tapos magkakaron muli ng new designation. So, ang tinitingnan ngayon ay yung retirement ay lampas na sa June 30.”

Kung pagbabatayan ang pahayag ni Roxas, hindi na makakasama sa pagpipilian bilang bagong PNP chief ang number two rank na si Deputy Chief for Operations at most senior police officer na si P/DDG Marcelo Garbo na isa sa mga matunog na posibleng ipalit kay PNP-OIC P/DDG Leonardo Espina.

Si Garbo ay sa March 2 ng susunod na taon magreretiro sa serbisyo na miyembro ng PMA Class 1981, ka-batch nina Gen. Purisima at Gen. Espina.

Malabo na rin ang pagiging PNP Chief kay P/Dir. Juanito Vaño, ang kasalukuyang directorate for logistics, na magreretiro naman sa May 30 ng susunod na taon.

Habang pasok naman sina CIDG Chief P/Dir. Benjamin Magalong na sa Dec 15, 2016 pa magreretiro, at si Directorate for Operations P/ Dir. Ricardo Marquez, na sa August 28 ng susunod na taon magiging epektibo ang retirement.

Ang pinakamatunog na magiging susunod na pinuno ng Pambansang Pulisya ay si P/CSupt. Raul Petrasanta na director naman ng Police Regional Office 3.

Si Petrasanta ay class 84 ng PMA na nakatakdang magretiro sa June 10, 2017.

Kaugnay nito sinabi ni Roxas na tuloy pa rin ang ginagawang interview ng pangulo sa mga star rank ng PNP bilang bahagi na pamimili para sa susunod na hepe ng Pambansang Pulisya.

“Marami rami na ang mga nakausap ng pangulo at siguro sa darating na araw ay may mga balita nang ipapamahagi sa inyo.”

Idinagdag pa ni Sec. Mar Roxas na isinasaalang alang din ng pangulo sa pagpili ng susunod na pinuno ng Pambansang Pulisya ang halalan sa susunod na taon. (LEA YLAGAN / UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: (Left-Right) Mayor Jejomar Binay, President Benigno Aquino III at DILG Sec. Mar Roxas. (Benhur Arcayan / Malacañang Photo Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Nagbitiw na si Vice President Jejomar C. Binay bilang miyembro ng gabinete ni Pangulong Aquino.

Batay sa ipinadalang statement ng tanggapan ni VP Binay sa UNTV News, ngayong araw nagsumite ng kanyang irrevocable resignation ang pangalawang pangulo.

Ang anak nitong si Makati City Representative Abigail Binay ang nagdala ngayong hapon sa tanggapan ni Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa ang resignation letter ng kanyang ama na naka-address sa chief executive.

Sinikap naming kunin ang personal na pahayag mula sa kampo ng mga Binay ngunit wala pang sumasagot sa aming mga tawag.

Samantala, sa text message ni USec. Abigail Valte, sinabi nitong kinukumpirma pa nila ang impormasyon. (UNTV News)

Employees from a disinfection service company sanitize the interior of a theater in Seoul, South Korea, June 18, 2015.
REUTERS/KIM HONG-JI

South Korea’s health ministry reported on Monday two more deaths in the country’s Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, which the World Health Organization said was “large and complex,” bringing the number of fatalities to 27.

Thailand, which reported its first case last week, said it had no new cases, raising hopes the virus there had been contained. Neighbouring Malaysia announced nonetheless that it was stepping up health screening at all entry points.

The outbreak in South Korea has been traced to a 68-year-old man who returned from a trip to the Middle East in early May and sought medical help at different hospitals before being diagnosed with the MERS virus.

The health ministry in Seoul also confirmed three new cases, taking the total to 172 in an outbreak that is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, but has shown signs of slowing credited to wide-reaching control measures.

MERS was first identified in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and the majority of cases have been in the Middle East.

Isolated cases have cropped up in Asia before South Korea’s outbreak began last month, and Thailand reported its first case last week in a 75-year-old man from Oman who had traveled to Bangkok for treatment for a heart condition.

“Today we can assure [you] that we have found no new MERS cases,” Thai Deputy Health Minister Vachira Pengchan told a news conference.

“Overall we are able to control the virus and the risk is lower,” Vachira said, adding that the condition of the lone MERS patient was improving.

MEDICAL TOURISM

Thailand is a popular hub for medical tourism, with around 1.4 million visitors traveling there for healthcare each year, and Vachira said the public health ministry might ask private hospitals treating foreign patients to screen those traveling from high risk areas, including South Korea and the Middle East.

Malaysia, which shares a 650 km (400 mile) land border with Thailand, has already begun monitoring passengers’ body temperatures at its airports, Deputy Health Minister Hilmi Yahaya said in a statement to state news agency Bernama.

“Now, we are going further to include all entry points,” he said.

South Korea’s health ministry said last week that the outbreak may have leveled off, although it said more cases were expected. It reported no new cases on Saturday, the first time in 16 days.

The latest fatalities reported in South Korea on Monday were of patients aged in their 80s with pre-existing health problems, the health ministry said.

Most of the schools that had shut two weeks ago as fear grew about the possible spread of the virus outside hospitals were re-open on Monday, with just six remaining closed, according to the Education Ministry in Seoul.

The number of people who were in quarantine was also down to 3,833 as of Monday, a decline of 202 people from the previous day and down from a peak of more than 6,700 people last week.

All of the South Korean cases have been traced to hospitals.

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok and Praveen Menon in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Bahagi ng presentasyon ng Bayanihan sa Daan movement ukol sa road sharing sa EDSA.

MANILA, Philippines — Ang matinding traffic ang isa sa mga problema na kinakaharap ngayon ng mga commuter dito sa Metro Manila.

At upang maibsan ang mabigat na daloy ng trapiko partikular na sa EDSA, magsasagawa ang grupong Bayanihan sa Daan Movement ng EDSA Evolution o road sharing sa darating na June 28.

Sa EDSA Evolution, magtatalaga ang Metro Manila Development Authority ng bagong sistema ng vehicle lanes sa north bound at south bound ng EDSA simula SM Mall of Asia hanggang sa EDSA-Ortigas intersection.

Batay sa plano ng MMDA dalawang lanes ang itatalaga para sa mga bus, isang lane ang ilalaan para sa mga pribadong sasakyan, isa ring lane para sa mga bisikleta at ang huling lane ay para sa mga tao naglalakad.

Layunin ng proyekto na maibsan ang mabigat na daloy ng mga sasakyan sa EDSA at hikayatin ang publiko na gumamit ng bisikleta bilang alternatibong transportasyon na makakabawas rin sa polusyon sa Metro Manila.

Pahayag ng leader ng Bayanihan sa Daan movement na si Atty. Antonio Oposa Jr., “What we are trying to do here is to how the proof of concept, not an experiment. This is an exercise and a proof of concept.”

Nitong Lunes ay nagpulong na ang MMDA, Bayanihan sa Daan movement upang talakayin ang kabuong implementasyon ng programa, kasama ang DOTC, DPWH, DENR at iba pang ahensya ng pamahalaan.

Makikilahok rin sa programa ang iba pang civil society groups tulad ng Clean Air Asia, National Bike Organization at iba pang mga grupo.

Ayon kay MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino, “Full support ako sa mga hakbangin na makakabawas ng traffic pero yung proof of concept nito, kaya nga proof of concept, tingnan muna natin kung ano ang mangyayari.”

Sakaling maging epektibo ang naturang sistema,target ng Bayanihan sa Daan movement na ipatupad ang road sharing sa EDSA tuwing araw ng Linggo.

Nanawagan naman ng suporta mula sa publiko ang grupo, upang maisakatuparan ang mabuting layunin ng kanilang proyekto. (JOAN NANO / UNTV News)