In Havana, music stops as Cubans mourn 'father' Castro

Havana, Cuba - Cubans will likely forever remember where they were when Fidel Castro's death was announced. The music stopped across the dance-happy city and people rushed to awaken loved ones with the news.

Parties shut down and the bustling streets emptied after President Raul Castro, Fidel's 85 year-old younger brother, made the announcement on state television around midnight Friday.

"Everyone was stunned. It was a very sad moment," said Yaimara Gomez, who was working in a hotel at the time.

Unlike various occasions over the years, this time it was not a hoax: the man most Cubans grew up with as their country's leader had died.

"With great pain I appear before you to inform our people and our friends in the Americas and the world that today, November 25 at 10:29 pm, the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, passed away," the president said.

He gave no details of the cause or circumstances of the death. It was assumed Castro died at his Havana home where he lived after stepping aside from power in 2006 following intestinal surgery.

Car washer Marco Antonio Diez, 20, was out at a party when the music suddenly stopped.

"I went home and woke up everyone, saying: 'Fidel has died,'" he told AFP. "My mother was astonished."

'Like losing a father'
As the news spread, crowds danced and celebrated in the streets of Miami, home to the largest Cuban exile community and their descendants.

But in Havana, locals mourned.

"Losing Fidel is like losing a father -- the guide, the beacon of this revolution," said Michel Rodriguez, a 42-year-old baker.

He was still in his shop late at night when he heard the news on the radio.

"What can I say? Fidel Castro was larger than life. I always wanted to die before him," said Aurora Mendez, 82.

She recalled a life in poverty before Castro's revolution in 1959.

"Fidel was always first in everything, fighting for the downtrodden and the poor," she said.

Choking back tears, Irma Hierrezuelo, 65, said she had gone on medication "for my nerves" after learning the news.

"He was my second father," she said. "I owe my nursing studies -- I owe everything -- to him."

The government decreed nine days of mourning and ordered flags to be flown at half-mast.

Castro's ashes will be buried in the historic southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba on December 4 after a four-day procession through the country, it added.

Santiago was the scene of Castro's ill-fated first revolution attempt in 1953.

As the news spread around the world, local media seemed taken by surprise: even the state newspaper Granma took about five hours to put the story on its website.

'Never forgotten'
Castro was loathed by many for stifling dissent, but loved by others for providing free universal healthcare and education.

He came to power in 1959 as a black-bearded, cigar-chomping 32-year-old in a revolution against former dictator Fulgencio Batista.

"I was born under this revolution and I am truly sad," Micaela Consuegra, a street-sweeper of 55.

"He was a unique man, with his faults and his virtues. It is a great loss. He is a man who will never be forgotten, by his friends or his enemies."

Blanca Cabrera, a 56-year-old housewife, came out into her garden to smoke a cigarette after hearing the news.

"It is hard to believe that Fidel has gone," she told AFP, her face showing her distress.

She recalled Castro's last public speech, to the Communist Party congress earlier this year, when he seemed to see the end was near.

"Everyone's turn comes," Castro said at the congress in April.

"He prepared the people for this moment," Cabrera said.

"But he will still be with us for years to come. That soothes the pain."

source: interaksyon.com

Japan PM: Trans-Pacific Partnership 'meaningless' without US

Buenos Aires, Argentina - A Pacific-wide trade deal would be "meaningless" without the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday, as Donald Trump vowed to abandon the agreement on his first day in office.

The future of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been thrown into serious doubt after the US president-elect repeated a pledge to make withdrawing from the pact a top priority.

The Republican billionaire, who made the comments in a short video message, has previously said the TPP would be bad for the country and cost jobs.

Abe, who attended an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru at the weekend, said there had been no discussion there among other TPP members about pressing on with a deal that did not include the US.

"TPP without the United States would be meaningless," Abe said, responding to questions from reporters during a stop in Buenos Aires.

"It is impossible to renegotiate it, and it would destabilize the basic balance of interests."

The US and Japan are the biggest members of the massive trade deal, which would encompass some 40 percent of the global economy if it goes into force. It also includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

The deal, which has been years in the making, cannot be implemented in its current form without the US.

The 70-year-old Trump outlined a list of priorities for his first 100 days and executive actions to be taken "on day one" -- on half a dozen issues from trade to immigration, national security and ethics.

"On trade, I am going to issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country," said the property tycoon, who takes office January 20.

"Instead, we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores," he added.

Both the TPP and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement linking the US, Mexico and Canada featured heavily in the brutal White House race.

Trump's remarks came just days after Abe met him in New York, the first world leader to sit down with the president-elect.

"The fact that Trump has made it is his first priority (out of six) to withdraw from TPP demonstrates his strong determination to kill (it)," said Matthias Helble, a research economist at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo.

"Abe's charm offensive to be the first foreign head of state to visit Trump has failed."

Trump appeared focused on bilateral agreements that would let the US use its size to "basically dictate trade deals with smaller developing countries", Helble added.

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook's Zuckerberg discloses steps to fight fake news

Facebook Inc, facing withering criticism for failing to stem a flood of phony news articles in the run-up to the US presidential election, is taking a series of steps to weed out hoaxes and other types of false information, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Friday evening.

Facebook has long insisted that it is a technology company and not a publisher, and rejects the idea that it should be held responsible for the content that its users circulate on the platform. Just after the election, Zuckerberg said the notion that fake or misleading news on Facebook had helped swing the election to Donald Trump was a "crazy idea."

Zuckerberg then said last Saturday that more than 99 percent of what people see on Facebook is authentic, calling "only a very small amount" fake news and hoaxes.

But in his Friday posting Zuckerberg struck a decidedly different tone. He said Facebook has been working on the issue of misinformation for a long time, calling the problem complex both technically and philosophically.

"While the percentage of misinformation is relatively small, we have much more work ahead on our roadmap," Zuckerberg said.

He outlined a series of steps that were already underway, including greater use of automation to "detect what people will flag as false before they do it themselves."

He also said Facebook would make it easier to report false content, work with third-party verification organizations and journalists on fact-checking efforts, and explore posting warning labels on content that has been flagged as false. The company will also try to prevent fake-news providers from making money through its advertising system, as it had previously announced.

Zuckerberg said Facebook must be careful not to discourage sharing of opinions or mistakenly restricting accurate content. "We do not want to be arbiters of truth ourselves, but instead rely on our community and trusted third parties," he said.

Facebook historically has relied on users to report links as false and share links to myth-busting sites, including Snopes, to determine if it can confidently classify stories as misinformation, Zuckerberg said. The service has extensive "community standards" on what kinds of content are acceptable.

Facebook faced international outcry earlier this year after it removed an iconic Vietnam War photo due to nudity, a decision that was later reversed. The thorniest content issues are decided by a group of top executives at Facebook, and there have been extensive internal conversations at the company in recent months over content controversies, people familiar with the discussions say.

Among the fake news reports that circulated ahead of the US election were reports erroneously alleging Pope Francis had endorsed Trump and that a federal agent who had been investigating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was found dead.

source: interaksyon.com

Leonard Cohen, music’s poetic visionary, died in his sleep after fall

Songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen died in his sleep after a fall in his Los Angeles home in the middle of the night, his manager has said.

“The death was sudden, unexpected, and peaceful,” his manager Robert Kory said in a statement published on the Cohencentric website.

Cohen, music’s man of letters whose songs fused religious imagery with themes of redemption and sexual desire, died on Nov. 7. He was 82. No cause was given for his death when it was announced three days later on his Facebook page.

Cohen has been buried in Montreal in an unadorned pine box next to his mother and father, his son Adam said on Facebook on Sunday.

“As I write this I’m thinking of my father’s unique blend of self-deprecation and dignity, his approachable elegance, his charisma without audacity, his old-world gentlemanliness and the hand-forged tower of his work,” Adam Cohen wrote.

Born into a Jewish family in 1934 and raised in an affluent English-speaking neighborhood of Quebec, Cohen read Spanish poet Federico García Lorca as a teenager – later naming his daughter Lorca. He learned to play guitar from a flamenco musician and formed a country band called the Buckskin Boys.

Cohen moved to New York in 1966 at age 31 to break into the music business. Before long, critics were comparing him with Bob Dylan for the lyrical force of his songwriting.

Although he influenced many musicians and won many honors, including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Order of Canada, Cohen rarely made the pop music charts with his sometimes moody folk-rock.

His most ardent admirers compared his works to spiritual prophecy. He sang about religion, with references to Jesus Christ and Jewish traditions, as well as love and sex, political upheaval, regret and what he once called the search for “a kind of balance in the chaos of existence”.

Cohen’s most famous song, “Hallelujah,” in which he invoked the biblical King David and drew parallels between physical love and a desire for spiritual connection, has been covered hundreds of times since he released it in 1984.

Cohen’s other well-known songs include “Suzanne,” “So Long, Marianne,” “Famous Blue Raincoat” and “The Future,” an apocalyptic 1992 recording in which he darkly intoned: “I’ve seen the future, brother/It is murder.”

source: interaksyon.com

2 hurt as Canada airliner swerves to avoid object near Toronto

OTTAWA/MONTREAL -- A Canadian airliner with 54 passengers on board had to swerve to avoid an unmanned flying object near Toronto early on Monday, slightly injuring two cabin crew in the most serious case of its kind in Canada, officials said.

The Porter Airlines Bombardier Q400 plane, which took off from Ottawa, was at 9,000 feet (2,750 meters), descending into the city's Billy Bishop waterfront airport, when the pilots saw an unmanned aerial vehicle.

"Two crew members performed an evasive maneuver to avoid the unidentified object," said Genevieve Corbin, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Corbin said the object was most likely a drone.

Two cabin crew suffered slight injuries during the incident, Porter said.

"The pilots' initial assessment was that it looked like a balloon. After debriefing, there is potential that the object was a drone," said Porter Airlines spokesman Brad Cicero.

The plane landed at about 7:30 a.m. ET. The TSB has now launched an investigation, the first time it has done so for such an incident, said Corbin.

Dan Adamus, president of the Air Line Pilots Association International's Canada Board, said by phone that he had never heard of a plane swerving to avoid a drone in the country before.

"This is a big concern for pilots," he said.

In June, Canada's Transport Ministry launched a campaign intended to deter people from flying drones near airports or aircraft.

In Canada, users operating drones weighing less than 35 kg (77 lbs) for recreational purposes do not need a permit.

Transport Canada, however, is now proposing to end the distinction between flying drones for recreational and commercial purposes, and would instead regulate the use of UAVs based on risk by looking at factors like the size of the drone and whether they are flown in the line of sight.

"We are looking at the rules and regulations that are in place now, and we are looking to strengthen them because it is in fact -- it can be very dangerous," Kate Young, Parliamentary Secretary to Canada's Minister of Transport told reporters on Monday.

There has been a rash of near misses between planes and unmanned aerial vehicles in the United States in recent years.

In April, police in Britain said a British Airways passenger aircraft collided with what was most likely a drone as it prepared to land at London's Heathrow Airport.

source: interaksyon.com

NIGHT DELIGHT | 'Supermoon' to grace Earth's skies

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - The largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades will be on display in the coming days, promising Earth-bound sky-watchers a celestial "supermoon" spectacle.

The full moon will come nearer to Earth than at any time since 1948, astronomers said. At closest approach, which occurs at 6:23 a.m. EST on Monday, the moon will pass within 216,486 miles (348,400 km) of Earth's surface, about 22,000 miles (35,400 km) closer than average, they added.

The moon's distance from Earth varies because it is in an egg-shaped, not circular, orbit around the planet.

If skies are clear, the upcoming full moon will appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than usual, making it what is called a supermoon, according to NASA.

A supermoon occurs when the timing of a full moon overlaps with the point in the moon's 28-day orbit that is closest to Earth.

About every 14th full moon is a supermoon, said University of Wisconsin astronomer Jim Lattis.

The next time a full moon comes as close to Earth will be in 2034.

"If you could stack up full moons next to each other, there is clearly a difference," Lattis said, but to a casual observer it is going to look very similar to a regular full moon.

Weather permitting, sky-watchers in North America and locations east of the International Dateline will have a better view on Sunday night since the moon will set less than three hours after closest approach on Monday.

"The difference in distance from one night to the next will be very subtle, so if it's cloudy on Sunday, go out on Monday. Any time after sunset should be fine," Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, said in a statement.

source: interaksyon.com

Malaysia, Indonesia markets roiled as investors scramble for hedge on Trump

JAKARTA -- Emerging markets in Southeast Asia were slammed on Friday as the stunning upset of Donald Trump's presidential win in the United States reverberated around the world, with Malaysia and Indonesian central banks intervening to try to stem the flow of money out of stocks and bonds.

The latest selloff was triggered by markets recalibrating their expectations of a Trump presidency on broad economic policy, with a growing consensus that his policies will be inflationary and push US rates up driving investors out of emerging markets and into dollar-based assets.

Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasuries have spiked 41 basis points in the past two days as investors scrambled to readjust their positions.

Emerging markets in Asia are particularly vulnerable to hot money outflows, and deep uncertainty over how broad US and international policy will ultimately play out under Trump has unsettled investors.

On Friday's Asian session, the differential between the onshore spot rate in the Malaysian ringgit and the offshore NDF rate spread hit its widest since 2009.

Ringgit one-month non-deliverable forwards plunged to 4.5280 per dollar, while spot ringgit stood at 4.2670. As a result, the dollar/ringgit's NDFs premium over the dollar/ringgit spot widened to 0.2610, the widest since at least April 2008, according to Reuters data.

The subdued spot rate belied the drama because Bank Negara Malaysia was acting to stem any panic, traders said.

Malaysia's central bank governor Muhammad Ibrahim told reporters on Friday the ringgit should not be priced out of sync with fundamentals, and that it has a responsibility to tell banks to take temporary measures to calm the market

"We don't want to be dictated by factors that have nothing to do with the country's fundamentals," Ibrahim said.

Traders in Kuala Lumpur said the central bank had told them not to quote offshore rates and was approving large ringgits sell orders on a one-off basis in a bid to keep a lid on things. The tactic seemed to work with onshore trade reportedly very thin.

Hot money headache

However, yields on Malaysian government bonds told another story. Yields on 10-years have widened 22 basis points since Wednesday, while those on 20-year and 30 year bonds have widened 21 basis points and 10 basis points respectively over the same period.

Almost 40 percent of Malaysian government bonds are in foreign hands.

Malaysian stocks were down almost one percent.

Indonesian markets also dived in early trade. Indonesia has enjoyed relatively high inflows into stocks and bonds markets in the past few months, making it vulnerable to hot money outflows at times of uncertainty.

The rupiah  fell as much as 2.7 percent, while Jakarta Composite Index fell as much as 3.2 percent to its lowest since Sept 16.

Bank Indonesia sold dollars to stabilize the currency, traders said, but it still fell to a four-month low.

Nanang Hendarsah, an official at BI, said the rupiah's sharp drop was caused by sudden hedging activity in the NDF market, but noted outflows from Indonesian markets were contained so far.

Yield of Indonesia's 10-year government bonds jumped on Friday to 7.462 percent from 7.417 percent. Foreigners own 38.4 percent of outstanding Indonesian government bonds.

Philippine stocks were also caught in the selloff with the main index tumbling more than 2.5 percent. The Philippines peso, however, was steady at 48.99.

The short term might prove a head-spinning affair for investors, especially for those in emerging markets.

"With the market now pricing in low expectations of further US Federal Reserve rate hikes beyond the one expected in December, Mr. Trump’s economic policies present an upside risk to rates," said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ.

"This, coupled with the depreciation pressure on Asian currencies, has put serious pressure on Asia’s carry trades."

source: interaksyon.com

Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Katy Perry lead celebs mourning Clinton loss

Lady Gaga called for kindness, Miley Cyrus was in tears, Madonna vowed never to give up and Katy Perry urged Americans not to weep as Republican Donald Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored Democrat Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.

Celebrities, many of whom had campaigned for Clinton, were shocked as Trump was elected after a long and bitter campaign.

A tearful Cyrus posted a video on social media on Wednesday saying she had not slept because of Clinton’s loss. But the “Wrecking Ball” singer, 23, who had said earlier this year she would leave the country if Trump won, urged unity, saying “Donald Trump, I accept you as President of the United States … Please treat people with compassion and respect.”

Lady Gaga went to Trump Tower in Manhattan early on Wednesday and posted a picture of herself on Instagram holding a “Love trumps hate” campaign poster.

“I want to live in a #CountryOfKindness #LoveTrumpsHate. He divided us so carelessly. Let’s take care now of each other,” she wrote.

Hollywood actors, comedians and filmmakers had thrown their support behind Clinton. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, entertainment sources contributed $22 million to her campaign and to pro-Clinton super-PACs through Oct. 19, compared with less than $290,000 for Donald Trump, Hollywood trade publication Variety reported this week.

Cher, who had said earlier in the campaign that she would move to Jupiter if Trump was elected, tweeted “World will never be the same. I feel sad for the young.” She made no mention of moving out of the United States.

Perry, who performed for Clinton at several campaign rallies, said “Do not sit still. Do not weep. MOVE. We are not a nation that will let HATE lead us.”

“A New Fire Is Lit. We Never Give Up. We never Give In,” wrote Madonna on Twitter.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who is British, got into a Twitter spat after urging her followers to challenge “racism, misogyny and hatred.”

But Trump too had his show business supporters.

“CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT TRUMP! @realDonaldTrump against all odds ..against the establishment and even against most from the GOP..U did it!,” tweeted former “Cheers” actress Kirstie Alley.

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the brother of “Saturday Night Live” star Alec Baldwin, tweeted that he was “proud to have been part of such amazing history.”

source: interaksyon.com

California polling station in lockdown after shooting

LOS ANGELES -- A polling station in California was placed on lockdown Tuesday following a nearby shooting that left one person dead and three wounded, authorities and news reports said.

The shooting took place in early afternoon in the city of Azusa, 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, Vanessa Lozano, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department told AFP.

She said three people were transported to a hospital with gunshot wounds and one was dead on arrival.

Details about the incident, which happened in a residential neighborhood, were sketchy.

A polling station in the area was placed on lockdown as was a school, according to local news reports.

source: interaksyon.com

At long last, Americans decide between Clinton and Trump

NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump face the judgment of the voters on Tuesday as millions of Americans turn out on Election Day to pick the next US president and end a bruising campaign that polls said favored Clinton.

In a battle centered largely on the character of the candidates, Clinton, 69, a former secretary of state and first lady, and Trump, 70, a New York businessman, made their final, fervent appeals to supporters late on Monday to turn out to vote.

Their final week of campaigning was a grinding series of get-out-the-vote rallies across battleground states where the election is likely to be decided.

"We choose to believe in a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America," Clinton said in Philadelphia before a crowd of 33,000 - the biggest of her campaign.

She was joined by Democratic President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton

Trump made one of his final appearances late on Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire, where polls showed a tight race.

“Tomorrow, the American working class will strike back,” Trump said. “It’s about time.”

He brought much of his family on stage for his last rally in the state where he scored his first victory in the Republican nomination fight.

First woman president

Clinton went into Election Day as the favorite to become the first US woman president after spending eight years in the White House as the first lady in the 1990s.

A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral College votes out of 270 needed, to Trump's 235.

But Trump advisers said the level of his support was not apparent in the polling and believed the New York businessman was in position for an upset victory along the lines of the "Brexit" vote in June to pull Britain from the European Union.

"We have seen enormous momentum," said deputy Trump campaign manager Dave Bossie.

Financial markets brightened in reaction to the latest twists in what has been a volatile presidential campaign. Global stock markets and the US dollar surged, putting them on track for their biggest gains in weeks.

Investors, who see Clinton as a known quantity, were buoyed by an announcement on Sunday by FBI Director James Comey that cleared Clinton of a cloud of controversy involving her use of a private email server while President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

While opinion polls showed a close race, but tilting toward Clinton, major bookmakers and online exchanges were more confident of a Clinton victory. PredictIt put her chances of capturing the White House at 81 percent.

Both Clinton and Trump planned to vote on Tuesday - she in Chappaqua, New York, and he in Manhattan. They were then to hold victory rallies about a mile apart in the evening in New York City.

Eyes on Florida, North Carolina
An early indicator of the strength of each candidate could come in North Carolina and Florida, two must-win states for Trump that have been the subject of frantic last-minute efforts by both the Republican and Democratic campaigns.

Races in both those states were shifting from favoring Clinton to being too close to call.

A strong vote for Clinton could jeopardize Republican control of the US Senate, as voters choose 34 senators of the 100-member chamber. Democrats needed a net gain of five seats to win control. The 435-seat House of Representatives was expected, however, to remain in Republican hands.

Voters had to choose between Clinton, who has vowed to largely continue the policies of Democrat Obama, and Trump, who has never held public office and has positioned himself as a change agent. Both were viewed unfavorably by majorities of voters.

The long-running US election campaign has been one of the most negative in American history with each candidate accusing the other of lacking the character and judgment to be president.

Trump, a former reality TV star, reveled in the drama and seized the spotlight time and again with provocative comments about Muslims and women, attacks against the Republican establishment and bellicose appeals to build a wall along the US southern border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration.

But the spotlight was not always kind to Trump, with the release of a 2005 video in which he boasted about groping women damaging his campaign and leaving him on the defensive for critical weeks.

Clinton, a former US senator with a penchant for secrecy, sustained damaging blows of her own linked to her handling of classified information as the country's top diplomat. FBI Director Comey shook up the race and slowed her momentum with an Oct. 28 announcement the agency was reviewing newly discovered emails that might pertain to her email practices.

On Sunday, Comey told Congress that investigators had found no reason to change their July finding that there was no criminal wrongdoing in Clinton's use of the server. (Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Amanda Becker)

source: interaksyon.com

James Harden’s sizzling 4Q carries Rockets past Wizards; Sixers fall again

Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said his team must iron out their defensive kinks after a James Harden-inspired road victory over the Washington Wizards on Monday.

Harden scored 32 points — including 14 in the final quarter — as the Rockets prevailed 114-106 to improve their season record to 4-3.

Harden’s final quarter points spree rescued the Rockets, who had trailed 95-94 with just over seven minutes remaining in the game.

However Houston pulled away with a run of 12 points to lead 106-95 with 3:43 remaining.

Ryan Anderson chipped in with 23 points while Trevor Ariza added 15 points.

But D’Antoni was alarmed by the way his team had shipped points in the first and third quarters, conceding 30 and 36 points respectively.

“We had two really good defensive quarters and two really bad ones,” D’Antoni told reporters.

“We’ve got to smooth it out and keep working on it. We did enough to win. It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.”

Nevertheless, D’Antoni is confident his team has the savvy to improve their defense.

“We’re not even close to where we need to be as a team,” he said. “But that’s good because we’ve got room for improvement and there’s no reason why we can’t keep improving.”

Harden meanwhile also backed the Rockets to tighten up their defensive game, as they managed to do in the decisive fourth quarter.

“That was the only way we’d have the opportunity to win, through our defense,” Harden said.

“First quarter we gave up 30 points, second quarter we gave up 17. We were just too inconsistent.

“But fourth quarter we did a great job of blocking in and playing harder. We’ll figure it out.

“We are going to make mistakes but we are going to have each other’s backs.”

The Rockets made 17 of 37 three-pointers and shot 51.9 percent from the field.

Both Anderson and Ariza sank three-pointers in the decisive stretch of the match.

For the Wizards, John Wall had 21 points and eight assists but was ejected with 33 seconds left following a second technical foul.

Bradley Beal and Otto Porter bagged 20 points for the Wizards, who fell to 1-5 with the loss.

Patience for Embiid

Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown called on fans to lower expectations about returning star Joel Embiid on Monday as the Cameroonian center works his way back from a long-term injury.

Embiid scored 14 points but the 7ft (2.13m) player’s contribution was not enough to stop the Sixers sliding to their sixth loss of the year, 109-84 to the Utah Jazz.

The Sixers (0-6), the worst team in the NBA last year with an abysmal record of 10 wins and 72 losses, are looking to Embiid, who has missed all of the last two seasons due to injury, to help transform the franchise’s fortunes.

But although Embiid has impressed in the games he has played in so far this year, Brown said it was easy to forget that the 22-year-old, the third pick overall in the 2014 draft, remained massively inexperienced.

“We all get excited, you know, that he’s going to come out from the get-go and be Joel Embiid and play like a poised veteran,” Brown said.

“But it’s just not fair, or true. There is a level of realization that we have to go through to wait and watch and make him grow.

“He’s still going to produce some of the numbers you see. But there are still lots of times where it’s clear he’s a young man who hasn’t played basketball for two and a half years.

“He’s finding his feet, all wrapped up in this big frame, with a hell of a lot of talent.”

Brown’s plea for patience however could not deflect attention away from another disappointing loss.

The Jazz were without George Hill (thumb injury) and Rudy Gobert, who fouled out after playing just 20 minutes. However even with those absences, Utah remained firmly in control with Gordon Hayward’s 20 points and 16 from Derrick Favors leading the way. Rodney Hood added 18 points as the Jazz improved to 5-3.

“I think (the victory) speaks to our depth,” Hayward said. “I think it speaks to our inner drive a little bit, because we have some expectations for ourselves this year. You’ve got to take care of these games.”

Jazz coach Quin Snyder said the club’s depth on the bench had been crucial. “They really picked it up,” he said. “That group of guys picked up the intensity on defense, and it carried over.”

source: interaksyon.com

Manny Pacquiao reclaims WBO welterweight title with win over Jessie Vargas

Filipino star Manny Pacquiao reclaimed the World Boxing Organization welterweight title for the third time with a unanimous decision victory over former champion Jesse Vargas in his comeback fight on Saturday.

The 37-year-old Pacquiao, who announced his retirement seven months ago after beating Timothy Bradley, knocked Vargas down in the second round en route to a decisive victory at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Pacquiao, 59-6 with two drawn and 38 knockouts, showed he still has a lot left in the tank but failed to get the knockout victory that has eluded him for the past seven years.

All three judges scored the bout for Pacquiao, two of them by 118-109 and the other by 114-113.

Pacquiao won the WBO title for the first time in 2010 when he beat Miguel Cotto. He lost it two years later to Bradley, then got it back by winning the rematch with Bradley in 2014. He then lost it last year to the now-retired Floyd Mayweather, who had a front row seat for Saturday’s bout.

Pacquiao took time off to concentrate on his job as a newly elected politician in the Philippine Senate. After serving his first stint as a rookie senator, he says the fire was rekindled and the stage set for a return to boxing.

Pacquiao said he was retiring following his April 9 two-knockdown victory over Bradley in their third fight.

Pacquiao looked impressive in stopping Bradley, showing that he has recovered from a shoulder injury which hampered him in his fight against Mayweather in May 2015.

Both fighters felt each other out as very few punches were thrown in the first round.

Pacquiao was the quicker of the two to size up the opponent as the Filipino southpaw learned early on that he could counter Vargas’ left jab with a right to the face.

That’s what happened in the second round when Pacquiao connected on a counterpunch that sent Vargas stumbling backwards and onto the canvas.

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton camp dares FBI to tell about Trump's Russia ties

WASHINGTON/FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A top aide to Hillary Clinton urged the FBI on Tuesday to disclose what it knows about any ties between Donald Trump and Russia, accusing the agency of unfairly publicizing its inquiry into Clinton's email practices while staying quiet about the Republican presidential candidate.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary inquiry in recent months into allegations that Trump or his associates might have had questionable dealings with Russian people or businesses, but found no evidence to warrant opening a full investigation, according to sources familiar with the matter. The agency has not publicly discussed the probe.

A week before Election Day, the Clinton campaign was trying to contain damage from the announcement by FBI Director James Comey on Friday that his agency was looking into newly discovered emails that might relate to Clinton's use of a private server while she was secretary of state.

Clinton has voiced confidence the FBI will not find anything problematic.

She campaigned on Tuesday in the battleground state of Florida, where she was joined in Dade City by former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom Trump had mocked for gaining weight. Chants of “Lock her up!” from dozens of Trump supporters gathered nearby could be faintly heard while Clinton spoke.

In Ft. Lauderdale, a young man who yelled, "She's a liar" was escorted out of the rally. Several other protesters removed during the course of her speech.

"I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior from people who support Donald Trump," Clinton said as another protester was removed from the rally.

Trump and other Republicans have seized on Comey's announcement, which did not indicate any wrongdoing by Clinton, to ratchet up criticism of the Democratic candidate. She leads in most opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Trump urged people on Tuesday who voted early for his Democratic rival to cancel their ballots and switch to him.

"This is a message for any Democratic voters who have already cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton and who are having a bad case of buyer's remorse, in other words you want to change your vote," Trump told a Wisconsin rally.

“So if you live here or in Michigan or Pennsylvania or Minnesota, you can change your vote to Donald Trump."

Several states, including those cited by Trump, have a process to allow voters who cast early ballots to change their votes, either by submitting new ballots or showing up at their polling place on Election Day.

'Connections to the Russians'

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook questioned why the FBI director had not released any information about the agency's Russia inquiries.

"If you're in the business of releasing information about investigations on presidential candidates, release everything you have on Donald Trump. Release the information on his connections to the Russians," Mook said on CNN.

The FBI inquiry reviewed allegations that Trump or his associates might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or engaged in contacts or commerce with people in Russia who are subject to US or international financial sanctions.

The US government has blamed Russia for cyberattacks on Democratic Party organizations. Democrats criticize Trump for taking what they say is a pro-Russia foreign policy stance.

Russia's possible role in the campaign again came into focus when online magazine Slate said a group of computer scientists had been alarmed by records showing thousands of apparent connection attempts between an email server operated on behalf of the Trump Organization and computers inside a Russian company, Alfa Bank in Moscow.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the server, which had been used to send out hotel marketing material, had been dormant for years.

Prominent US cyber security company FireEye said it had been hired by Alfa Bank to investigate the records and had been granted access to the bank’s systems in Moscow to look for evidence of any relationship with Trump’s company or any signs of hacking or infection. FireEye said so far it had found no emails being sent back and forth or any other link.

Opinion polls showed Clinton's lead has narrowed slightly since early last week but it was too early to say whether the email controversy was hurting her.

Clinton led businessman Trump in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters released on Monday, by 44 percent to 39 percent. Clinton, hoping to be the first woman elected president, strengthened her lead over Trump in polls after the release last month of a 2005 video in which the Republican bragged in vulgar terms about groping women.

But in a dramatic twist, Comey told Congress in a letter on Friday that the FBI was reviewing the newly discovered emails.

Comey had announced in July that the FBI had completed a probe into the email practices, concluding there were no grounds to bring any charges.

Clinton's team has been pressing the FBI to provide details on the new trove of emails, which Comey said may or may not be significant in the case.

Little is publicly known yet about the emails, other than that they were found during an unrelated probe into former US Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Comey's letter has provided Republicans with fresh fodder for attack in the waning days of the campaign. US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that a Clinton presidency would bog down in "scandal baggage."

Congressional Republicans, who had been concerned Trump risked damaging their majorities in the House and Senate, were also encouraged by his recent statements on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. A campaign aide said if Trump wins, he would ask Congress to begin working on legislation to repeal the law before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

source: interaksyon.com