Botswana celebrates 49 years of Independence

(sabc.co.za) - Celebrations are expected to be held in Botswana on Wednesday (9/30) to mark the country's 49 years of independence. The main event will be held at the national stadium in Gaborone.

This year's celebrations come as the country grapples with electricity and water challenges.

Opposition parties have also formed a strong coalition against the ruling BDP that has been in power since independence.

Botswana attained its independence in 1966, with Sir Seretse Khama as its first president, succeeded by Sir Ketumile Masire, then Festus Mogae and currently, that position is held by Khama's son, Seretse Ian Khama.

Botswana was previously under the British protectorate, with the current North West province capital Mahikeng as its capital. Its independence was instrumental in offering refuge to South African freedom fighters who fled the country due to apartheid laws.

Former South African president, Nelson Mandela, used Botswana as a gateway to other African countries.

Meanwhile, the ANC's Zacharia Tolo, who also sought refuge in Botswana, says the country remains an inspiration for the rest of Africa.

Tolo took a moment to “congratulate Batswana for having sustained peace and stability, democracy and economic growth for the past years in their freedom.”

Tolo further says Botswana has become a beacon of hope, the beacon of democracy and tranquillity in Southern Africa and the rest of the African continent.

Related: US statement on Botswana National Day

Top 10 facts you didn't know about Botswana

Saudi FM: Assad must go or face 'military option'

(Yahoonews) - United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad must leave office or face being turfed out by force, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said Tuesday, warning of stepped up support for Syrian rebel groups.

Jubeir rejected Russian calls for an international coalition to help Assad fight the Islamic State group, and said the Syrian leader's best option would be to step down.

"There is no future for Assad in Syria, with all due respect to the Russians or anyone else," Jubeir told reporters in New York after meetings with Saudi Arabia's allies.

"There are two options for a settlement in Syria. One option is a political process where there would be a transitional council," he said, describing this as the "preferred option."

"The other option is a military option, which also would end with the removal of Bashar al-Assad from power," Jubeir warned.

"This could be a more lengthy process and a more destructive process, but the choice is entirely that of Bashar al-Assad."

Jubeir would not be drawn on specifics of what the military option would look like, but noted that Saudi Arabia is already supporting "moderate rebels" in their battle against Assad.

"Whatever we may or may not do we're not talking about," he said, adding: "There is a Free Syrian Army that is fighting against Bashar al-Assad.

"There is a moderate Syrian opposition that is fighting against Bashar al-Assad and this opposition is getting support from a number of countries, and we expect that this support will continue and intensify."

Jubeir said the best option would be for Assad to accept the principles of the Geneva I agreement signed at a peace conference in 2012, laying the groundwork for a transitional government.

Under this plan, he said, Assad would immediately cede power to an executive council made up of both members of his regime and opposition figures. Full Story

US: Under pressure from the right, House Speaker Boehner quits

Reuters - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner will leave Congress at the end of October after struggling with repeated rebellions by conservatives during a tumultuous five-year reign as the chamber's top Republican.

The 65-year-old Ohio lawmaker stunned Republican House members at a meeting on Friday morning with the announcement that he would leave the top job in the 435-seat chamber and resign his seat effective on Oct. 30.

U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy, 50, of California, the No. 2 House Republican, quickly became the leading contender to replace Boehner as speaker. While loyal to Boehner, McCarthy has built personal relationships with conservative groups and tacked right recently to back the shutdown of the Export-Import bank.

Boehner (pronounced BAY-ner) told reporters McCarthy "would make an excellent speaker."

Boehner has faced constant pressure from conservatives who believe he was too willing to compromise with President Barack Obama and too frequently relied on Democratic votes to pass crucial legislation.

Obama praised the speaker as "a good man" and said he hoped Boehner would be in a position to get a lot done before he leaves.

Boehner told reporters he was stepping aside to avoid another brewing House battle over his leadership. Conservatives had threatened a revolt and possible government shutdown over spending next week.

"It's become clear to me this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution," Boehner told a news conference. He fought back tears as he thanked his family but happily sang "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" to indicate he was far from broken up about the decision.

"It's the right time to do it, and frankly I'm entirely comfortable doing it," Boehner said.

His move eased the threat of a federal government shutdown next week, Republicans said, freeing Boehner to forge ahead with a "clean" spending bill that funds the women's healthcare group Planned Parenthood without fear of reprisal from conservatives who object to the group's abortion services.

But the battle over Boehner's successor could coincide with fights later this year over government spending and raising the federal debt limit, complicating those battles and adding more uncertainty for financial markets. Full Story

Instagram surges past Twitter to become 2nd biggest social network

(computerworld) - Instagram hit a milestone this week, logging more than 400 million monthly users, solidly surpassing rival Twitter.

Instagram, a five-year-old site for posting and photos and video online, has solidly surpassed rival Twitter to claim the No. 2 spot in the social networking world - behind parent company Facebook.

"Given that Facebook owns Instagram, that certainly makes them the king of the social networking mountain," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "Instagram is aimed squarely at mobile devices, and that makes it very easy for users to shoot and post very quickly. It also has the patina of 'cool' with hip users -- mainly arising from young users adopting it as their own."

Instagram is gaining momentum. In December of last year, the company said it reached the 300 million monthly user mark. Less than a year later, the site has added another 100 million active users.

Despite the surge in monthly users, Instagram is still far behind Facebook, the world's largest social network with more than 1 billion worldwide users.

However, the numbers put Instagram beyond Twitter, which in June reported316 million active monthly users. Instagram is also well ahead of Google+, which reportedly has about 300 million active monthly users.

"While milestones like this are important, what really excites us is the way that visual communication makes the world feel a little bit smaller to every one of us," Instagram wrote in a blog post. "Our community has evolved to be even more global, with more than 75% living outside of the U.S. To all the new Instagrammers: welcome!"

Among the last 100 million to join, more than half live in Europe and Asia, the company noted. The countries that added the most Instagram users include Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.

"Instagram surpassing Twitter in terms of monthly users is a pretty big deal and will probably surprise quite a few people," Olds said. "Instagram has typically been seen as skewing more toward young people . The fact that it suddenly has more users than Twitter means Instagram must be breaking through with adults, as well." Full Story

‘Ginger Supremacist’ Convicted for Plot to Make Prince Harry King of England

Ginger Supremacist?

LONDON — A man from the South Coast of England has become the world’s first convicted ginger terrorist.

After decades of perceived abuse for his red hair, Mark Colborne, 37, stockpiled the ingredients required for an arsenal of chemical weapons that he was planning to deploy against “blacks and Caucasian idiots,” officials say.

On behalf of his ginger “brothers,” the man’s ultimate aim was to assassinate Prince Charles and Prince William so that the British crown could be placed on the red head of Prince Harry.

Colborne was found guilty Tuesday in London of preparing terrorist acts after his family found the substances needed to make cyanide in his bedroom along with dust masks, a spray bottle, gloves, and a chemical that would help the poison penetrate his victims’ skin.

He had also amassed a small library of manuals that may have helped him commit an atrocity, including The Poor Man’s James Bond, which was compiled by former American Nazi Party member and survivalist Kurt Saxon.

More alarming than the recipes for napalm, cyanide, and ricin were the journals penned by Colborne that spelled out his terrifying hair-colour-based ideology.

“I want them to see my transition from poor red-haired victimized minority that is constantly walked over to a fully transformed military terrorist striking at the hearts of the bigoted tyrannical rulers and of course the dark-haired dark-eyes Caucasoid race,” he wrote. “I will be heard through terror.”

North Carolina: Teen prosecuted for taking naked selfies of himself and having them on his phone

(Telegraph.co.uk) - Experts have condemed the decision of the courts in North Carolina, to prosecute a 17-year-old boy for possessing nude pictures of himself.

Cormega Copening was 16 at the time that the photos were discovered, and he had to strike a plea deal to avoid potentially being registered as a sex offender and going to jail.

He was suspended as a quarterback in his football team, and was named and shamed in the media. He has also had to agree to be subject to warrantless searches by law enforcement for a year.

The teenager was charged as an adult under federal child pornography felony laws, for sexually exploiting a minor. The minor was himself.

His girlfriend, Brianna Denson, was also prosecuted for having naked pictures of herself on her phone. It was illegal for both of them to possess photos of themselves - but it would not be illegal for them to have sex, as she was also 16 at the time.

The age of consent in North Carolina is 16. The court cases were about "sexting", but the main charges against them were related to them taking and possessing photos of themselves, not of each other. Full Story

Is your face wash damaging the oceans?

(csmonitor) - Tiny but powerful forces are invading our seas, and your daily hygiene regimen is likely implicated.

Scientists and conservation advocates are now calling for the ban of microbeads – small pieces of plastic found in toothpaste, body scrub, face wash, and other 'exfoliating' cosmetics. The problems arise when microbeads are flushed down the drain, as they’re designed to be, and end up in aquatic habitats. Because they only measure up to one millimeter in size, wastewater treatment plants aren’t able to screen them.

As a result, about 8 trillion microbeads per day are entering rivers, lakes, and oceans. According the press release for a recent study on the spread and effects of the miniscule culprits, that’s enough to cover 300 tennis courts each day. But this figure doesn’t account for the 99 percent of all microbeads that end up in sewage sludge and can also eventually enter streams and oceans.

Fish and other marine species are likely to mistake the microbeads for food, and when these small animals fall prey to bigger ones, the microbeads make their way up the food chain. Because of the chemicals used in the manufacturing process, as well as pollutants absorbed by the microbeads in water, the tiny plastic specks are toxic to consume. Other scientists have found that microbeads can clog the digestive systems of coral, eventuallystarving them to death. Full Story

Inuit’s High-Fat, Omega-3 Seafood Diet Healthy Due To Gene Mutations: Study

(yibada.com) - The Mediterranean diet is considered very healthy due to its olive oil, fruits and vegetables, and fish, resulting in low risks of heart attacks. A new study theorizes that the Arctic's high-fat omega-3 Inuit diet that includes seafood such as seals or whales triggered gene mutations, causing low rates of diabetes and heart disease.

The study was published September 17, Thursday, in the journal Science and was conducted by the University of California, Berkley. It examined genetic differences between Inuit, Europeans, and ethnic Chinese.

Researchers previously believed that the Arctic animals' meat's and blubber's omega-3 fatty acids protected their consumers. However, new research done on Inuit in Greenland seems to disprove that theory.

The study's findings suggest the Arctic people's genes evolved a certain way. It allows them to eat more fat than most other ethnic groups.

Researchers discovered a critical group of genes. They control how much omega-3 and omega-6 a person's body produces naturally.

Biologist Rasmus Nielsen was the lead researcher. He explained that almost all of the Inuit in the study had gene variations that could slow down the body's production of omega fatty acids, according to NPR.

The genes also seem to help lower "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which is linked to heart disease. It also resulted in lower blood sugar levels, which decreases the risk of diabetes.

In addition, the gene mutations lowered the Inuit's height by almost an inch (2 centimeters). This could be due to fatty acids affecting growth hormones, according to Phys.org.

Just 15 percent of Chinese and 3 percent of Europeans had those gene biomarkers.

Nielsen's hypothesis is that the group of genes helped the Inuit's ancestors survive the North Pole's frigid temperatures. This allowed them to live on a diet containing mostly fat and protein.

Read more: HERE

New York: Target pharmacy workers form union, first in company's history

(Reuters) - A group of pharmacy workers within Target Corp's store in Brooklyn, New York, have won a vote to form a microunion, making it the first unionized store at the retailer since its inception in 1902.

Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters was first to report that a group of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians won an initial ballot, 7-2, to form the union, according to a filing on the National Labor Relations Board website and union officials.

Target said it was "disappointed" by the vote within its store and will appeal the NLRB's decision to allow the vote to proceed.

Target is in the process of selling its pharmacy business to CVS Health Corp.

"Because of the pending sale of the business, we don't believe it was appropriate for the NLRB to move forward with the petition," spokeswoman Molly Snyder told Reuters.

"We believe it should have been dismissed and made that argument at the hearing."

The National Labor Relations Board in 2011 ruled that so-called micro unions are appropriate within a company's operations when their members share "a community of interest."

That decision was upheld by a U.S. appeals court, spurring the board in 2014 to extend the standard to retail stores in a case involving fragrance and cosmetic department workers at Macy's Inc.

The National Retail Federation and other industry groups have said the decisions would wreak havoc on stores, pitting groups of employees against each other and forcing companies to negotiate with multiple unions that could have competing interests.

Union groups say the NLRB ruling in favor of microunions is appropriate to the modern-day workplace, where employees often are asked to staff multiple departments.

Target, which up until now has not had any unionized stores or microunions, said it twice previously has overcome serious attempts at unionization. The first occurred in Detroit in the 1990s, and the second came at its Valley Street store in New York City in 2011.

"It is a big win for us," said Lou Solicito, organizing director of the United Food and Commercial Workers union that supported the vote.

"We are ready to bargain a contract with Target," he said. Full Story

New Yorkers in favor of raising minimum wage to $15 per hour: poll

Feudalism!

(Reuters) - A solid majority of New York state residents are in favor of raising the minimum wage over the next several years to $15 an hour, according to a new poll released on Friday.

According to the survey conducted by Quinnipiac University, 62 percent of New York voters, across every gender, age and regional group, supported raising the minimum wage.

Republican voters surveyed were the sole exception, with 65 percent opposing the idea, while 85 percent of Democrats said they would support such an initiative.

Among voters overall, the poll found 35 percent were opposed while 3 percent did not know.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, proposed on Sept. 10 that the minimum wage be increased over the next six years to $15 an hour. In New York City, the proposal calls for that wage to reach its target by the end of 2018.

This would mirror a state order signed last week that applies only to the fast-food industry. However, an increase for all industries will require lawmakers' approval.

A Cuomo proposal for a more modest minimum-wage increase was opposed by the Republican-led state Senate earlier this year.

The current hourly minimum wage in New York State is $8.75 and will increase to $9 on Dec. 31.

The poll found 8 percent did not want any increase at all, while 41 percent wanted the increase to be less than $15 an hour. A further 37 percent thought it should be raised to $15 an hour while 11 percent thought it should go even higher.

Quinnipiac conducted the telephone poll from Sept. 10 through 15th, calling 1,366 New York State voters. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percent.

Twitter users threaten to move to Mexico if Trump is elected

(thehill.com)Twitter users are most frequently naming Mexico as the country they would move to if Donald Trump wins the White House.

An analysis by Luminoso released Tuesday found 75,000 tweets where people said Mexico would be their escape from a Trump administration, according to USA Today. The tweets were among 200,000 “intent to move” posts referencing a change of residence should Trump win in 2016.

After Mexico, Canada was the second-most popular destination named by Twitter users, according to USA Today. Luminoso found that 17 percent of tweets analyzed — or 25,000 posts — picked America’s northern neighbor for a new home.

The United Kingdom came in third, with 5 percent of tweets sampled — 11,000 total — mentioning the nation as a top choice.

Some 5,800 tweets referenced a move to Alaska, while another 1,500 named Hawaii, despite both being part of the United States.

Australia, France, Jamaica, Ireland, Sweden and Brazil were also frequently mentioned destinations for people who would flee from Trump.

Luminoso, which bills itself as an artificial intelligence-based text analysis company, culled the results from 4.5 million tweets referencing Trump from Aug. 7 to Sept. 9.

The threat to move to Mexico carries added significance with Trump, who has stoked controversy by sharply criticizing the country's role in illegal immigration.

He he made building a wall along America’s southern border a major selling point of his campaign.

Trump remains the front-runner for next year’s GOP presidential nomination despite controversy over his positions. He leads the Republican 2016 field with 29.8 percent, according to the latest

Full Story

Taco Bell joins fast-food booze bandwagon with new U.S. eateries

(Reuters) - Yum Brands Inc's Taco Bell chain next week will debut a new restaurant concept that dumps the drive-thru and brings on the booze as it seeks to appeal to hip, young city dwellers and fend off popular rival Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc .

The first of the chain's new Taco Bell Cantina restaurants will open in Chicago's hipster Wicker Park neighborhood on Sept. 22, with a second later this month in San Francisco.

The Wicker Park restaurant will serve beer, wine, sangria and twisted freezes - frozen drinks spiked with rum, vodka or tequila. The San Francisco outlet will serve beer and wine only.

The Cantina restaurants, like Chipotle's roughly 1,900 restaurants, will have open kitchens. The Cantina restaurants also will offer a tapas-style menu of shareable appetizers during designated hours each evening, in addition to the standard Taco Bell menu.

Chipotle already offers alcohol at about 1,000 restaurants. Most of those sell both beer and margaritas, while some sell only beer.

The move from Taco Bell comes as U.S. restaurant chains experiment with new ways to add sales and lure customers.

Taco Bell, which recently had a huge hit with its Doritos Locos tacos, debuted a Chipotle-like "Cantina" menu a few years ago and is testing a separate urban taco concept called U.S. Taco Co in Huntington Beach, California.

On other fronts, 75 Starbucks Corp cafes offer that chain's "evenings" menu that includes craft, local and regional beer, wine and small plates of food. Starbucks goal is to have "evenings" in roughly 2,000 Starbucks locations by 2019.

Taco Bell, which now has more than 6,000 restaurants, plans to add 2,000 new restaurants by 2022. It did not say how many new or remodeled restaurants would become Taco Bell Cantinas. Full Story

Facebook ready to test button that goes beyond "like"

(cbsnews.com) - Facebook may finally be getting a button that lets you quickly express something beyond a "like."

Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that people have been asking for a "dislike" button on the social media site for years.

Speaking at an event at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters that was streamed live online, Zuckerberg acknowledged that "like" isn't always appropriate for some posts -- about a tragic news event, for example -- when people might want to express empathy.

Zuckerberg said the company, however, has veered away from making a "dislike" button, which could be used to vote down other people's posts. He said the new button is ready to be tested soon and could be rolled out broadly depending on how it does.

President Obama Orders Behavioral Experiments On American Public

(dailycaller.com) - President Obama announced a new executive order on Tuesday which authorizes federal agencies to conduct behavioral experiments on U.S. citizens in order to advance government initiatives.

“A growing body of evidence demonstrates that behavioral science insights — research findings from fields such as behavioral economics and psychology about how people make decisions and act on them — can be used to design government policies to better serve the American people,” reads the executive order, released on Tuesday.

The new program is the end result of a policy proposal the White House floated in 2013 entitled “Strengthening Federal Capacity for Behavioral Insights.”

According to a document released by the White House at that time, the program was modeled on one implemented in the U.K. in 2010. That initiative created a Behavioral Insights Teams, which used “iterative experimentation” to test “interventions that will further advance priorities of the British government.”

Read more: Here

Retail Giant/Welfare State WalMart Imposing New Fees on Vendors & the Vendors are Mad as Hell

…and they’re not gonna take it anymore

(twice.com) - Doing business with Walmart has always been tough, as the discounter relentlessly drove out costs in pursuit of its low-price customer promise.

But the world’s largest retailer has apparently crossed a line with a new set of vendor terms, announced by Walmart U.S. president/CEO Greg Foran in June. The new policies reportedly impose warehouse storage charges and new slotting fees on some manufacturers, and could extend their payments out by months.

Walmart said the moves are designed to tighten its ties with vendors, put all on equal footing, simplify systems, and, ultimately, deliver lower prices to customers.

But according to Bloomberg News, the new rules have led to something of a vendor revolt, with some companies hiring attorneys and at least two major brands refusing outright to accept the terms.

The alternative, several suppliers told Bloomberg, is firing workers, cutting wages, or passing along the costs to their own suppliers.

A Walmart spokesperson acknowledged that “It isn’t going to always be easy for our suppliers,” who are being encouraged to take out low-interest loans to tide them over between payments.

A consultant who works with several Walmart vendors described the higher charges as a function of “a new retail reality,” as the discount chain pours billions of dollars into new distribution and e-commerce infrastructure and a better in-store experience.

“This is the price of not just selling things to Walmart, but leveraging Walmart’s massive platform,” she said. Full Story

* * * *

Related: Wal-Mart Billionaire Hag Alice Walton Puts Texas Horse Ranch On the Market for US19.75 Million  (Time.com)

(cnbc.com) Wal-Mart feeling a 'ton' of pressure over suppliers: Analyst

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) Wage Hike Debacle Continues As Suppliers Forced To Layoff Employees Amid New Fees (etfdailynews.com)

California: LAPD to have electric vehicles – From Tesla Motors Inc?

(thenextdigit.com) - In what can be considered a great push for electric and hybrid vehicles in Los Angeles, LA’s mayor has decided to lease more electric vehicles for city departments. According to a Los Angeles Times report, the district has decided to lease 160 battery EV automobiles, which would make Los Angeles, the city with the largest EV fleet in the whole country.

“When we laid out our sustainable city plan… we promised that 50% of new city fleet vehicles purchased each year would be EV by 2017”, LA’s Mayor Garcetti said at a news conference Friday outside the LAPD headquarters. “Our goal is to one day go from gas-powered to battery electric in our squad cars. And if we do that, the impact could be national in scale,” he added.

LAPD has already deployed 23 electric scooters as well as three electric motorcycles. The new announcement by LA’s mayor may inspire other states’ departments also as electric vehicles use zero gas, making them environmentally friendly as well as saving tax payers’ money for other work.

DWP General Manager Marcie Edwards, “EVs make environmental and economic sense for the city of Los Angeles, and LADWP is pleased to support the mayor’s goal to have EVs become the majority of our fleet.”

During the event, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said, “I think that today, this announcement, will trickle across the nation as a challenge to other cities, other police departments, other fire departments to look at what you’re doing and to take a step that makes a change for the positive”. Beck marked it as a great day for the city and police department.

All this is part of the plan of Mayor Eric Garcetti to make Los Angeles a sustainable city. According to the plan, 50% of small city cars will become fully electric by 2017. The aim is to have an 80% electric fleet in 10 years.

Teacher Beaten for Trying to Get Pupil of Preferred Pigmentation to Put Away Her Phone

...of Preferred Pigmentation?

Oil-Price Slump Could Force U.S., Non-OPEC Suppliers to Make Deep Cuts

Really? Oil at $20?

 (wsj.com) - Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., known for its eye-popping oil-price predictions, said the benchmark U.S. oil price may have to tumble to as low as $20 a barrel—from current levels around $45—to clear out a global supply glut.

While $20 oil isn’t the investment bank’s baseline forecast, the radical scenario highlights the surprising strength of world-wide oil output following the past year’s downdraft in prices. It intensifies the debate over how low oil prices have to go before companies from Texas to Saudi Arabia to Russia dial back production in a significant way.

While it has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that U.S. output is declining, market watchers are divided over how much the shale-oil boom will slow and how producers elsewhere will respond. Another wild card is Iran, which has said it will produce as much oil as it can if sanctions are removed.

The International Energy Agency weighed in on Friday, saying U.S. shale-oil output would decline by nearly 400,000 barrels a day next year, giving Saudi Arabia a chance to regain some of the clout it lost as U.S. producers ramped up output in recent years.

U.S. oil prices fell $1.29, or 2.8%, on Friday to $44.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 52% from a year ago. Brent, the global benchmark, shed 75 cents, or 1.5%, to $48.14 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

In a report, Goldman Sachs said it is more likely that U.S. prices at $40 a barrel in the fourth quarter of this year and first quarter of 2016 would be low enough to discourage investment in new oil production and shrink the global glut of crude.

Macedonia-Skopje plans fence and troops on Greek border to stop migrants

Xenophipia!

(Telegraph.co.uk) Macedonia is considering building a Hungarian-style border fence to stem a rising influx of migrants from the south, foreign minister Nikola Poposki was quoted as saying on Thursday.

In an interview with Hungarian business weekly Figyelo, he said Macedonia will probably also need "some kind of a physical defence" though this would not be a long-term solution.

"But if we take seriously what Europe is asking us to do, we will need that, too. Either soldiers or a fence or a combination of the two," said Poposki.

West European states like France and Germany have criticised Hungary's ongoing construction of a 108-mile long, 11.5-foot-high fence along its border with Serbia to channel migrants to crossings where they can be registered.

Over 160,000 migrants have entered Hungary from the south this year, transiting Greece, Macedonia and Serbia in that order from war-torn or impoverished countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Almost all seek to reach wealthier western and northern European Union states like Germany and Sweden.

A single-day record of 7,000 Syrian refugees crossed on Monday into Macedonia, a small and relatively poor former Yugoslav republic.

German minister of state for Europe Michael Roth told the same newspaper that Germany expected countries to register migrants who entered the EU over their borders, but that fences were not the right approach.

"We must build a Europe where we protect freedom and guarantee security, but where there is no place for either fences or walls," Roth said.

Also on Thursday, Romania's president says there is "no way" his country will accept the extra number of migrants the European Commission has proposed.

Romania had initially agreed to accept 1,785 migrants, but under new plans unveiled by Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday would be obliged to take a further 4,646.

President Klaus Iohannis said Romania will send its interior minister to a special meeting Monday in Brussels to discuss the issue.

"I had a discussion with him today and his mandate is to declare that there is no way Romania will agree to the obligatory quotas."

Mr Iohannis said the EU is seeking to distribute migrants in a bureaucratic way without consulting member states.

The European Parliament on Thursday backed Mr Juncker's plan to spread out 160,000 refugees in Hungary, Greece and Italy across the other member states.

The support of the legislature had been expected and has little impact compared with the power of the member states, which also need to back the plan.

EU ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting on the issue next Monday and several eastern EU nations have already voiced their opposition to a mandatory spreading of refugees to their countries.

Florida man arrested in alleged Kansas City 9/11 memorial bomb plot

(Reuters) - A Florida man has been arrested and accused of plotting to detonate a pressure-cooker bomb at a memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.Joshua Ryne Goldberg, 20, was arrested on charges of distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction, the department said. His arrest was announced a day before the 14th anniversary of the attacks.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, the department said.

The criminal complaint said Goldberg distributed information to an informant on how to manufacture a bomb and instructed the informant to make a pressure-cooker bomb and fill it with nails, metal and other items dipped in rat poison.

When the informant claimed to live near Kansas City, Goldberg instructed the informant to place the bomb at an upcoming memorial in Kansas City that was commemorating 9/11, the complaint said.

The complaint details numerous conversations from the Twitter account of someone using the names AusWitness and AusSecret, who presented himself as a Muslim living in Australia who supported the Islamic State militant group.

However, the complaint also says that Goldberg, who was using his mother's computer in Orange Park near Jacksonville, was responsible for Internet hoaxes and had taken over the identities of other people online.

The complaint said a witness from Australia had identified Goldberg as an "online troll," who had used numerous identities. Full Story

Queen Elizabeth II Becomes Britain's Longest-Reigning Monarch

(nbcnews.com) 09/09/15 LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-reigning monarch in British history, overtaking her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria's record of 63 years and 216 days on Wednesday.

Despite the milestone, it was business as usual for the 89-year old and her husband Prince Philip.

The queen formally reopened a restored railway line in Scotland where she offered rare remarks to jubilant crowds, touching only briefly on the significance of the day.

"Prince Philip and I are very grateful for the warmth of your welcome," she told the crowd. "Many ... have also kindly noted another significance attaching to today, although it is not one to which I have ever aspired. Inevitably, a long life can pass by many milestones. Mine is no different. But I thank you all and the many others at home and overseas for you touching messages of great kindness."

The queen was 25 when she succeeded her father King George VI after his death in 1952. There have been 12 British prime ministers — starting with Winston Churchill — and 12 U.S. presidents during her time on the throne.

She surpassed Victoria at around 5:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. ET).

Tributes poured in from around the world led by British Prime Minister David Cameron who praised the queen as "a rock of stability in a world of constant change."

In a speech delivered to parliament on Wednesday, Cameron added: "It is of course typical of her selfless sense of service that she would have us treat this day like any other. While I rarely advocate disobeying her majesty, I do think it is right that today we should stop and take a moment as a nation to mark this historic milestone."

According to Cameron, the Queen has answered 3.5 million pieces of correspondence and sent 100,000 telegrams to centenarians across the Commonwealth.

She is also the country's best-traveled monarch, having undertaken 265 official visits to 116 countries.

"We couldn't be more proud of her," Cameron said. "She has served this country with unerring grace, dignity and decency. And long may she continue to do so."

(FYR) Macedonia celebrates 24 years of Independence

(09/08/15) Skopie. Macedonia celebrates Independence Day on Tuesday, Macedonian media reported.

On September 8, 1991 the country declared independence from Yugoslavia after organised a referendum. 95% of voters in the referendum answered positively to the question "Do you want an independent Macedonia with the right to enter into a union of sovereign states of Yugoslavia?"
On this date the country has established diplomatic relations with 155 countries worldwide and has been recognized under its constitutional name by 113 countries, including three permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Says Migrant Crisis Is Germany’s Problem

(wsj.com) - Hundreds of migrants seeking to reach Germany rushed trains at Hungary’s main international rail station on Thursday after police stopped manning the door, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blamed Europe’s migration crisis on Berlin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected the criticism, saying her country is doing what all European Union member states should be by taking in refugees in need of protection. Ms. Merkel said she agreed earlier in the day with French President François Hollande that the EU needs binding quotas to distribute refugees fairly.

Tensions have been rising within the bloc as it struggles to deal with thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, underlining competing national interests amid warnings that the bloc’s cherished policy of border-free travel is at risk. Hungary—on the bloc’s edge—has emerged as a key transit point for people seeking to reach wealthier states where they believe they will have better prospects.

Mr. Orban took a defiant stance during a news conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, where he was holding a series of meetings with top officials. He said he was abiding by EU rules in seeking to register migrants before allowing them to pass into another EU country and is considering the deployment of the army to protect Hungary’s borders with non-EU member neighbor Serbia. He brushed off calls for Hungary to reconsider its rejection of a fairer redistribution system for refugees across the bloc.

“The problem is not European, it’s German. Nobody would like to stay in Hungary, neither Slovakia, Poland or Estonia,” Mr. Orban said after talks with European Parliament President Martin Schulz. “All of them would like to go to Germany.”

Florida: Fast food resturant Arby's apologizes after officer is denied service for being a cop

(foxnews) 09/02/15 - A Florida Police Department had a beef with Arby’s after a cop was denied service Tuesday evening by a worker at the fast food franchise – simply because the customer was a police officer.

Top corporate officials at roast beef mecca Arby’s quickly apologized after the Pembroke Pines Police Department tweeted on Wednesday about the incident, which Chief Dan Giustino called “unacceptable.”

“I am offended and appalled that an individual within our community would treat a police officer in such a manner,” Giustino said in a statement.

“We are very proud of the partnerships we have built within our city, and for an incident like this to have happened is very disappointing for everyone.”

An officer, in uniform and driving a marked police vehicle, placed an order at a drive-thru speaker Tuesday evening before pulling up to the window to pay and receive the order. But an Arby’s worker at the window refused service.

“The comment was made that they wouldn’t be served because they were a police officer,” Maj. Carlos Bermudez, a Pembroke Pines officer, told FoxNews.com.

Someone else inside the restaurant intervened and gave the officer his order. But, after initially taking it and paying for it, the officer returned the bag and got a refund because he didn’t feel “comfortable.”

“In my 18 years here I’ve never heard of an incident like this before,” Bermudez said. “Whenever we’ve gone to an establishment, we’ve been treated professionally and great.”

Less than two hours after the PPPD sent out its initial tweet on the incident, the department followed up: Arby’s had apologized. Arby’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Brown and Senior Vice President of Operations Scott Boatwright spoke to Giustino to “convey their sincere apologizes on behalf of the organization,” according to a police press release.

“We take this isolated matter very seriously as we respect and support police officers in our local communities,” Arby’s said in a statement sent to FoxNews.com. “As soon as the issue was brought to our attention, our CEO spoke with the Police Chief who expressed his gratitude for our quick action and indicates the case is closed. We will be following up with our team members to be sure that our policy of inclusion is understood and adhered to.”

Numerous calls to the Arby’s at 11755 Pines Blvd were not answered. Arby’s did not respond to a question regarding the employment status of the worker who denied the officer service.

Pembroke Pines is a city on the east coast of Florida, located about 20 miles North of Miami. Full Story

Study: Lack of Sleep Could Increase Risk of Common Cold

(voiceofamerica) - While a cure for the common cold remains elusive, a new study says getting enough sleep could be key to avoid getting sick in the first place.

The study found that people getting less than six hours of sleep per night were four times more likely to catch a cold than their longer sleeping counterparts.

According to lead researcher Aric Prather, a sleep researcher at the University of San Francisco, the study was the first to “use objective sleep measures to connect people’s natural sleep habits and their risk of getting sick.”

“Short sleep was more important than any other factor in predicting subjects’ likelihood of catching cold,” Prather said in a statement. “It didn't matter how old people were, their stress levels, their race, education or income. It didn't matter if they were a smoker. With all those things taken into account, statistically sleep still carried the day.”

For the study, researchers recruited 164 volunteers between 2007 and 2011. The volunteers were given extensive health screenings and were asked about levels of stress, their general temperament, and their use of alcohol and tobacco in order to establish a general health baseline.

The volunteers’ sleep patterns and sleep quality were measured for a week prior to giving them the cold virus.

Subjects who had slept less than six hours a night during that week were 4.2 times more likely to catch a cold.

“It goes beyond feeling groggy or irritable,” Prather said. “Not getting sleep fundamentally affects your physical health.”

Researchers not affiliated with the study were not surprised with the findings.