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Trump cancels summit with Kim; North Korea still wants talks

‘THIS CLOSE’ President Donald Trump speaks about North Korea before signing the "Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act," in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, May 24, 2018, in Washington (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly canceled his summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, blaming "tremendous anger and open hostility" by Pyongyang — a decision North Korea called "regrettable" while still holding out hope for "peace and stability."

Continued on Page 3

A2 UP

Friday 25 May 2018

FRONT

Dem, GOP leaders get classified briefings on Russia probe

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Thursday huddled in classified briefings about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, a highly unusual series of meetings prompted by partisan allegations that the bureau spied on the Trump campaign.

Democrats emerged from the meetings saying they saw no evidence to support Republican allegations that the FBI acted inappropriately in its early investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News he had learned "nothing particularly surprising," but declined to go into detail.

Still, the extraordinary briefings drew attention to the unproved claims of FBI misconduct and political bias. The meetings were sought by Trump's GOP allies and arranged by the White House, as the president has tried to sow suspicions about the legitimacy of the FBI investigation that spawned a special counsel probe. Initially offered only to Republicans, the briefings were the latest piece of stagecraft meant to publicize and bolster the allegations. But they also highlighted the degree to which the president and his allies have used the levers of the federal government — in this case, intelligence agencies — to aide in Trump's personal and political defense.

Under direct pressure from the president, Justice Department officials agreed to grant Republicans a briefing, and only later opened it up to Democrats.

The invite list evolved up until hours before the meeting — a reflection of the partisan distrust and the political wrangling. A White House lawyer, Emmet Flood, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly showed up for both briefings, although

FBI Director Christopher Wray, right, leaves a classified briefing about the federal investigation into President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 24, 2018.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

the White House had earlier said it would keep a distance, drawing criticism from Democrats.

"For the record, the president's chief of staff and his attorney in an ongoing criminal investigation into the president's campaign have no business showing up to a classified intelligence briefing," Sen. Mark Warner tweeted after the briefing.

The White House said the officials didn't attend the full briefings, but instead delivered brief remarks communicating the "president's desire for as much openness as possible under the law" and relaying "the president's understanding of the need to protect human intelligence services and the importance of communication between the branches of government," according to a statement.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats attended both meetings — the first at the Department of Justice and the second on Capitol Hill.

Trump has zeroed in on, and at times embellished, reports that a longtime U.S.

government informant approached members of his campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway the election. The president intensified his attacks this week, calling it "spygate" and tweeting Thursday that it was "Starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history."

It was unclear how much information was given to lawmakers. According to a U.S. official familiar with the meeting, the briefers did not reveal the name of an informant. They brought documents but did not share them, and made several remarks about the importance of protecting intelligence sources and methods. The person declined to be identified because the briefing was classified.

In a statement, House Speaker Paul Ryan wouldn't say what he learned, but said he looked forward to the "prompt completion" of the House Intelligence Committee's work now that they are "getting the cooperation necessary."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, an ardent Trump supporter, had originally re-

quested the information on an FBI source in the Russia investigation. The original meeting was scheduled for just Nunes and Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but the Justice Department relented and allowed additional lawmakers to come after Democrats strongly objected. Nunes and other Republicans already eager to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation used Trump's complaints to obtain the briefing from the Justice Department, whose leaders have tried for months to balance demands from congressional overseers against their stated obligation to protect Mueller's ongoing investigation into ties between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.

Nunes attended both briefings Thursday. According to the U.S. official and another person briefed on the Capitol Hill meeting, Nunes did not speak at all during the briefing. The second person also declined to be named because the meeting was classified.

Democratic lawmakers declined to comment on the

substance of the briefing, but gave a joint statement afterward saying their view had not changed that "there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intelligence agency placed a 'spy' in the Trump Campaign, or otherwise failed to follow appropriate procedures and protocols."

The statement was issued

by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence panels, Warner and Rep. Adam Schiff.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr also attended the briefing but did not comment afterward.

The back and forth between Congress and the Justice Department has simmered for weeks.

The Justice Department had rejected Nunes' original request, writing in a letter in April that his request for information could put lives in danger.

Negotiations over release of the information stalled but restarted when Trump demanded, via tweet, on Sunday that the Justice Department investigate.

In response to the tweet, the Justice Department immediately asked its inspector general to expand its ongoing investigation to look into whether there was any politically motivated surveillance of the campaign and agreed to hold the classified briefings.

It remained unclear what, if any, spying was done. The White House gave no evidence to support Trump's claim that President Barack Obama's administration was trying to spy on his 2016 campaign for political reasons.

It's long been known that the FBI was looking into Russian meddling during the campaign and that part of that inquiry touched on the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian figures.

Mueller took over the investigation when he was appointed special counsel in May 2017.q

U.S. NEWS A3

Friday 25 May 2018

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Trump cancels summit with Kim; North Korea still wants talks Continued from Front

In a letter to Kim announcing his decision to back away from the June 12 summit, Trump pointed to America's vast military might and warned the rising nuclear power against any "foolish or reckless acts."

The letter kicked off a day of mixed messages by the president, who declared hours later, "I really believe Kim Jong Un wants to do what's right." After that, a senior White House official said the North lacked judgment and had reneged on its promises ahead of the summit. Trump said from the White House that a "maximum pressure campaign" of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation would continue against North Korea — with which the U.S. is technically still at war — but he added that it was possible the summit could still take place at some point.

North Korea issued a statement Friday saying it is still "willing to give the U.S. time and opportunities" to reconsider talks "at any time, at any format."

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan called Trump's decision "unexpected" and "very regrettable," and said the cancellation of the talks shows "how grave the status of historically deeprooted hostile North KoreaU.S. relations is and how urgently a summit should be realized to improve ties."

Kim insisted North Korea's "objective and resolve to do our best for the sake of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and all humankind remain unchanged."

Trump's surprise exit capped weeks of high-stakes brinkmanship between the two unpredictable leaders over

nuclear negotiating terms for their unprecedented sitdown. The U.S. announcement came not long after Kim appeared to make good on his promise to demolish his country's nuclear test site. But it also followed escalating frustration — and newly antagonistic rhetoric — from North Korea over comments from Trump aides about U.S. expectations for the North's "denuclearization."

The senior U.S. official said the North violated a pledge to allow international inspectors to monitor the supposed implosion of the site Thursday. International journalists were present, but the U.S. government can't verify the site's destruction. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid overshadowing Trump's comments Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a staunch Kim ally, said the North Korean leader had in fact done "everything that he had promised in advance, even blowing up the tunnels and shafts" of his country's nuclear testing site. Putin said of Trump's announcement, "In Russia we took this news with regret." Trump, in his letter to Kim, objected specifically to a statement from a top North Korean Foreign Ministry official. That statement referred to Vice President Mike Pence as a "political dummy" for his comments on the North and said it was up to the Americans whether they would "meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-tonuclear showdown."

Underscoring the high stakes, Trump said he had spoken with military leaders, as well as Japan and

South Korea, and stressed that the United States was prepared for any threat.

Still, Trump's announcement appeared to surprise South Korea, which had pushed to keep the summit on track as recently as Tuesday, when President Moon Jae-in met with Trump in the Oval Office and said the "fate and the future" of the Korean Pen-

insula hinged on the talks.

The Blue House said Thursday that it was trying to figure out Trump's intentions in canceling the summit.

Trump, who considers himself a master dealmaker, has confounded aides and allies at every turn of the fateful flirtation with the North. He looked past the warnings of senior aides when he accepted Kim's

invitation to meet back in March. He unveiled the date and the time with characteristic showmanship. And after initially projecting calm in the face of North Korea's escalating rhetoric, he made a sudden about face, though his letter also waxed poetic about the "wonderful dialogue" emerging between the two leaders.q

A4 U.S.

Friday 25 May 2018

NEWS

'It's about time': Trump pardons late boxer Jack Johnson

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday granted a rare posthumous pardon to boxing's first black heavyweight champion, clearing Jack Johnson's name more than 100 years after what many see as his raciallycharged conviction.

"I am taking this very righteous step, I believe, to correct a wrong that occurred in our history and to honor a truly legendary boxing champion," Trump said during an Oval Office ceremony. He was joined by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, retired heavyweight titleholder Lennox Lewis and actor

Sylvester Stallone, whom Trump credited with championing the pardon.

Trump said Johnson had served 10 months in prison "for what many view as a racially-motivated injustice."

"It's my honor to do it. It's about time," the president said. Johnson, a prominent athlete who crossed over into popular culture decades ago with biographies, dramas and documentaries, was convicted in 1913 by an all-white jury for violating the Mann Act for traveling with his white girlfriend. That law made it illegal to transport women across state lines for "immoral" purposes."

Trump had tweeted in late

April that Stallone, a longtime friend, had brought Johnson's story to his attention in a phone call.

"His trials and tribulations were great, his life complex and controversial. Others have looked at this over the years, most thought it would be done, but yes, I am considering a Full Pardon!" Trump wrote then.

The Oval Office ceremony was a celebratory scene, bringing together boxing greats past, present and fictional. The guests brought with them a colorful boxing championship belt, which sat front and center on the president's Resolute Desk as he spoke. At one point, Trump jokingly asked Lewis whether he could "take De-

ontay in a fight" if he really started working out.

Lewis said Johnson had been an inspiration to him personally, while Stallone said Johnson had served as the basis of the character Apollo Creed in his "Rocky" films. "This has been a long time coming," he said.

Trump has a personal history with the sport, and hosted matches in the 1990s at his hotels.

After Johnson’s conviction, he spent seven years as a fugitive, but eventually returned to the U.S. and turned himself in. He served about a year in federal prison and was released in 1921. He died in 1946 in an auto crash.

His great-great niece, Linda

E. Haywood, had pressed Trump for a posthumous pardon, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had promoted Johnson’s case for years.The son of former slaves, Johnson defeated Tommy Burns for the heavyweight title in 1908 at a time when blacks and whites rarely entered the same ring. He then beat a series of “great white hopes,” culminating in 1910 with the undefeated former champion, James J. Jeffries.

Haywood, who joined Trump in the Oval Office, said her great-great uncle’s conviction had led her family members to live in shame of his legacy.q

Bus driver charged in crash that killed student, teacher

By DAVID PORTER Associated Press A school bus driver with a history of driver's license suspensions caused a fatal crash on a New Jersey highway last week by crossing three lanes of traffic in an apparent attempt to make an illegal U-turn, according to a criminal complaint released Thursday.

Authorities charged Hudy Muldrow Sr., 77, with two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of 10-year-old student Miranda Vargas and 51-year-old teacher Jennifer Williamson. More than 40 others were injured, some seriously, in the May 17 crash between the bus and a dump truck.

The bus was one of three carrying students and teachers from a middle

school in Paramus on a field trip to a historic site in New Jersey, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away.

Muldrow missed a turn, then merged onto Interstate 80 in Mount Olive, according to an affidavit filed

by New Jersey state police.

He quickly crossed three lanes toward a break in the median reserved for emergency vehicles to attempt an illegal U-turn, the affidavit says.

Muldrow "disregarded the marked No Turn sign" and turned his bus "to the left in an apparent attempt to gain access to an officialuse only access point," according to the document.

It adds that Muldrow turned his bus "so that it was positioned in an almost-perpendicular direction in relation to the lanes of travel"

on westbound I-80.

The crash, about 45 miles west of New York City, sheared the bus from its wheelbase and crushed the front end of the dump truck. The bus wound up on top of the guardrail on the eastbound side of the highway.

In an interview this week on CBS, Muldrow's son said his father denied making a Uturn.

Muldrow had his license suspended 14 times between 1975 and 2017, mostly for administrative reasons, according to state motor vehicle records. The most recent license suspension was in December for failing to pay parking tickets. He also had eight speeding violations between 1975 and 2001.

At the time of the crash,

In this May 17, 2018, file photo, emergency personnel work at the scene of a school bus and dump truck collision on Interstate 80 in Mount Olive, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Muldrow had valid driving privileges, a valid commercial driver's license and a valid school bus endorsement, according to the Motor Vehicle Commission.

He had earned his com-

mercial driver's license in 2012 and his school bus endorsement in 2013. The bus endorsement requires drivers to pass a background check, road test and a written test.q

U.S. NEWS A5

Friday 25 May 2018

Body camera video is latest setback for Milwaukee police

By IVAN MORENO Associated Press MILWAUKEE (AP) — Body camera video showing police using a stun gun on an NBA player over a parking violation is just the latest setback for efforts to improve relations between Milwaukee officers and the city's black population.

The confrontation involving Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks also represents the first major challenge for new Police Chief Alfonso Morales, who took the job in February promising to restore public trust in a department besieged in recent years by excessiveforce lawsuits.

"Milwaukee has all the ingredients to be a great city, but each time an incident like this occurs, we are reminded of how much work we still have to do," the city's Common Council said in a statement Thursday.

Morales, a lifelong Milwaukee resident born to Mexican immigrants, pledged to be more transparent with cases of police misconduct, and he's already faced TV cameras twice this month to apologize for his officers' actions. The other case involved four officers caught on video kicking and punching an African-American man while he was restrained on the ground.

The Jan. 26 video of Brown showed how a simple interaction quickly escalated after an officer approached him about parking in a handicap spot around 2 a.m. at a Walgreens drug store. When

their conversation became tenser, the officer called more squad cars for help.

As Brown is surrounded by four officers, he's asked to take his hands out of his pockets and a scuffle ensues. Within seconds, one officer yelled "Taser! Taser!

Taser!"

The video became public after the department finished its internal investigation.

The officers were disciplined because they "acted inappropriately," Morales said. Brown was not charged with anything.

The chief did not name the officers or say how they were disciplined. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing unidentified sources, said three officers received suspensions ranging from two to 15 days.

"I am sorry this incident escalated to this level," said Morales, who left a news conference Wednesday without taking questions.

The police department did not identify the races of the officers, but most of them in the video appeared to be white. Brown is black.

A 2017 analysis by the Journal Sentinel found that black officers made up about 18 percent of the department, in a city that is roughly 39 percent black.

Morales' predecessor, Edward Flynn, had a combative relationship with some city officials during his decade on the job. The Common Council became so frustrated with him that members passed a resolution asking the state to empower the council to fire him. On Thursday, a council

member repeated that request, saying change in the department can only happen if the chief is accountable to city leaders instead of a civilian commission appointed by the mayor.

"We can have all sorts of community meetings and groups and say all these wonderful things. But "at the end of the day, the police chief can do whatever he wants without any consequences," Alderman Tony Zielinski said.

Morales' spokeswoman said he was not available for an interview.

Brown has indicated he will file a lawsuit against the police. If he does, the complaint will add to a long list of litigation the city has faced over officer misconduct.

Last year, Milwaukee paid $2.3 million to settle a law-

suit over the death of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man fatally shot by a police officer after the officer roused him from a park bench downtown.

In 2016, the city paid $5 million to settle a lawsuit by 74 black residents who said police illegally stripsearched them between 2008 and 2012. The American Civil Liberties Union in Wisconsin also has a pending lawsuit alleging the department has for years targeted black and Latino residents by stopping and questioning them without cause.

"It's just another black eye for the city of Milwaukee on a national level," Alderman Khalif Rainey said.

A day before the Brown video was released, Morales posted a short video on YouTube that showed him

walking through neighborhoods, talking to residents and emphasizing his desire to restore trust in the department. Rainey bashed the video, saying it's not enough. "First and foremost, it's going to require something more than a video, a nice fluffy PR effort," he said. "So it's really going to require the police to get out here in the community and really get integrated in neighborhoods and build a rapport with actual people on a first-name basis."

Jonathan Safran, a Milwaukee attorney who worked on the Dontre Hamilton case and lawsuit over illegal strip searches, said he's optimistic that settlement discussions in the ACLU lawsuit could lead to changes in how officers behave during traffic and pedestrian stops.q

This Jan. 26, 2018 police body-camera footage released by Milwaukee Police Department shows NBA Bucks guard Sterling Brown talks to arresting police officers after being shot by a stun gun in a Walgreens parking lot in Milwaukee. (Milwaukee Police Department via AP)

A6 U.S.

Friday 25 May 2018

$

NEWS

10

Seahawks' Baldwin says NFL "really missed it" with policy

By TIM BOOTH AP Sports Writer RENTON, Wash. (AP) — Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin had harsh words for the comments made by President Donald Trump regarding the NFL's new national anthem policy on Thursday, as players began to process the new mandate from the league's owners.

Baldwin has been a leading voice from the players' perspective for why there were protests last season even though Baldwin never participated in kneeling or sitting on the sidelines during "The Star-Spangled Banner."

He spoke passionately after the Seahawks concluded their offseason workout and sounded offended by the president's comments to "Fox & Friends" in an interview that aired Thursday saying, "maybe you shouldn't be in the country" if you don't stand for the anthem.

"He's an idiot. Plain and simple," Baldwin said. "I respect the man because he's a human being first

and foremost, but he's just being divisive, which is not surprising. It is what it is. But for him to say anybody who doesn't follow his viewpoints or his constituents viewpoints should be kicked out of the country is not very empathetic.

It's not very American like, actually, to me. It's not very patriotic. It's not what this country was founded upon. It's kind of ironic to me the President of the United States is contradicting what our country is really built on."

Baldwin was among a handful of players that have expressed frustration and disappointment with the NFL mandating players must stand for the national anthem if they're on the field, though they now have the option of remaining in the locker room for the playing of the anthem and carry on the campaigns against social injustice.

Even normally reserved Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson agreed with the sentiment that the owners' decision was a message

to players to essentially be quiet.

"Pretty much. I think that's part of it. It seems that way," Wilson said. "But I think a policy right or wrong is not going to fix our problems."

The new policy allows teams to adopt their own workplace rules, which many players interpreted as a backhanded way of subjecting them to fines, suspensions or loss of jobs should they carry on with the protests.

For Baldwin, who is among the players to have worked with the league on addressing social concerns and community programs, the anthem decision felt like a step back.

"If you're asking my opinion, I think that in conjunction with the NFL, the way that things were going, I felt on the Players Coalition side of things we were coming to an amicable agreement and relationship and working toward initiatives and causes that we wanted to see as players addressed, I thought that you would see the demonstrations and the issues within the NFL dis-

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson talks to reporters following NFL football practice, Thursday, May 24, 2018, in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

sipate," Baldwin said.

"But again, when you stoke the fire and inflame a gap that was really dissipating at the time, diffusing, you cause more problems.

That's why I say I think the NFL missed it."

Others around the league didn't see the policy as a potential issue.

"I'm really not too worried about it. I would expect that everybody's gonna be out there with their hand over their heart, showing respect to the flag and to the country," New Orleans

quarterback Drew Brees said. But teammate Demario Davis had mixed emotions about the policy. His father served in the military, but he also understands why players have been protesting. "I just think that when you love something — you care about it — you want to work to get it right.

I love my children. When they do wrong things, I'm going to let them know they're doing wrong things.

I'm not just going to sweep it under the rug because I love them," Davis said.q

U.S. NEWS A7

Friday 25 May 2018

Morgan Freeman apologizes in wake of harassment accusations

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman apologized on Thursday to anyone who may have felt "uncomfortable or disrespected" by his behavior, after CNN reported that multiple women have accused the A-list actor of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior on movie sets and in other professional settings.

"Anyone who knows me or

"Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Shawshank Redemption," and is renowned for his prolific voiceover work.

Earlier this year, he was honored by SAG-AFTRA with a lifetime achievement award. In a statement to The Associated Press, the organization, which represents actors, journalists and others, called the allegations "compelling and devastating" and contrary to its attempts to make sure

In this May 22, 2018 file photo, actor Morgan Freeman attends the 2018 PEN Literary Gala in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/ Invision/AP, File)

has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy," the actor, now 80, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press by his publicist, Stan Rosenfield. "I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent."

Freeman won the 2005 Oscar for best supporting actor for "Million Dollar Baby."

He was nominated four other times, including for

working environments are safe in the industry.

"Any accused person has the right to due process, but it is our starting point to believe the courageous voices who come forward to report incidents of harassment," the statement read. "Given Mr. Freeman recently received one of our union's most prestigious honors recognizing his body of work, we are therefore reviewing what corrective actions may be warranted at this time." The CNN re-

port includes the account of a production assistant on the 2017 heist film "Going In Style," who detailed an incident in which the actor repeatedly tried to lift up her skirt, and asked if she was wearing underwear.

She alleged that Freeman subjected her to unwanted touching and comments on a near-daily basis on the film. Several women alleged that he made frequent comments about

their bodies, or would stare at them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable.

CNN spoke to 16 people about Freeman; eight said they had experienced harassment or inappropriate behavior, and eight said they had witnessed such conduct. Seven of them described harassment or inappropriate behavior at Revelations Entertainment, a company he co-founded with Lori McCreary.

The CNN report also cited accounts by three entertainment reporters of inappropriate remarks they allege Freeman made at press junkets, including the report's co-author, Chloe Melas, who describes Freeman shaking her hand, "not letting go while repeatedly looking her up and down and saying more than once a variation of, 'I wish I was there'" — and also "You are ripe."q

A8 WORLD

Friday 25 May 2018

NEWS

Probe: Missile that downed MH17 came from Russia-based unit

In this July 17, 2014. file photo, people walk amongst the debris at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine.

Associated Press

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press BUNNIK, Netherlands (AP) — The missile used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 aboard, belonged to a Russia-based military unit, an international team of investigators said Thursday after painstakingly studying video and photos of a military convoy.

The criminal investigation team "has concluded that the Buk Telar with which Flight MH17 was shot down is from the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade from Kursk in the Russian Federation," said Wilbert Paulissen, head of the Netherlands' National Crime Squad, referring to the missile system used.

It was the clearest link yet published by the investigators to the involvement of Russian military in the deadly surface-to-air missile strike on the Boeing 777, and it

echoed findings published in 2016 by the Bellingcat investigative group.

Russia has always denied involvement in the downing of Flight 17, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when it was blown out of the sky at 33,000 feet (about 10,000 meters) over war-ravaged eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

Bodies, debris and burning wreckage were strewn over a field of sunflowers near the rebel-held village of Hrabove in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Russian border, where fighting had been raging for months.

On Thursday, Russia criticized the Joint Investigation Team, or JIT, for relying on claims by Bellingcat.

"If the international investigative team is indeed interested in tracking down the real culprits of the MH17

catastrophe, its members would better rely on facts and witness testimony and not fakes produced by Bellingcat and Ukraine's Security Service," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also criticized the investigators for allegedly ignoring evidence provided by Russia, including radar surveillance of the airspace at the time of the flight.

"In these circumstances, we have legitimate questions about the true underlying cause of the decision of the JIT to disclose the preliminary conclusion," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

Prosecutors said they have presented their findings to Moscow and are seeking answers, but so far have not received a response.

The international team running the criminal investigation appealed for help from

witnesses who can testify about the involvement of the Russian military's 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade.

Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said the new conclusion raised new questions, "such as the question about how actively involved the brigade itself was in bringing down Flight MH17."

Westerbeke said the JIT is not yet ready to identify suspects, but added: "I can say that we are now entering the ... last phase of the investigation."

Prosecutors said in 2016 that the plane was shot down by a Buk 9M38 missile fired from territory controlled by Russia-backed rebels, using a mobile launcher trucked in from Russia and hastily returned there.

Thursday's presentation went a step further by identifying the exact unit allegedly involved in the transport. It showed a compilation of video and photos from social media tracing the missile brigade convoy's journey in the weeks before the incident.

"All findings from this forensic investigation confirm the earlier conclusion of the JIT that Flight MH17 was shot down by 9M38 series missile," said Jennifer Hurst of the Australian Federal Police.

Investigators displayed parts of the engine casing and exhaust system of a Buk 9M38 series missile recovered from eastern Ukraine and showed photos of its

serial number, which they said demonstrated it was made in Moscow.

However, investigators said they could not yet say with certainty that it was the exact missile used to down MH17. They appealed for witnesses to come forward with more information about the missile and the role of the Russian military in transporting it.

In a statement, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: "That a sophisticated weapon belonging to the Russian Army was dispatched and used to shoot down a civilian aircraft should be of grave international concern. We are discussing these findings with our partners and considering our options."

Ultimately, any suspects identified and charged will be prosecuted in Dutch courts — if they can be arrested and brought to trial.

Of the 298 people killed, 196 were Dutch, 42 were Malaysian and 27 were Australian.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a Facebook post that he would "do everything possible to ensure that the actions of the Russian Federation as a state which supports terrorism get an appropriate assessment" in the International Court of Justice.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte cut short a visit to India so he could chair a Cabinet meeting to discuss the findings.q

WORLD NEWS A9

Friday 25 May 2018

Cyclone Mekunu pounds Yemen island on its path to Oman

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press SALALAH, Oman (AP) — Cyclone Mekunu roared over the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea on its way to Oman on Thursday, sending torrents of water rushing down streets and sinking at least two ships. At least 17 people were reported missing in the powerful storm.

Indian meteorologists expected the "very severe" cyclone to strike Oman on Saturday near Salalah, the sultanate's third-largest city and home to some 200,000 people near the country's border with Yemen.

Mekunu's sustained winds reached 155 kph (96 mph), with gusts reaching 175 kph (109 mph), India said.

Yemen's pro-government SABA news agency reported that 17 people were missing after two ships capsized in the storm and three vehicles washed away. It said Yemen's government, exiled in Saudi Arabia, had declared Socotra a "disaster" zone after the storm.

Soaking wet residents attempted to find shelter from the storm, which brought heavy rain, flooding and mudslides.

Mohammed al-Arqabi, a resident of the island who works as a local journalist, described the situation as "very bad," saying "the water level has greatly increased, and floods are everywhere ... washing away cars."

"More than 200 families have been displaced from their homes in the suburbs of Hadibu and areas close to the northern coast," he said. "Two Indian cargo ships have gone missing, losing five of their crew members."

Rajeh Bady, a spokesman for Yemen's exiled government, said the island was

in need of "urgent" aid, according to SABA. The island, listed by UNESCO as a world natural heritage site, has been the focus of a dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Yemen's internationally recognized government amid that country's war after Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, seized the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Saudi troops recently deployed on Socotra as a confidence-building measure over complaints by Yemen's government that the UAE deployed troops there without its permission.

Socotra has a unique ecosystem and is home to rare species of plants, land snail and reptile species that can be found nowhere else around the planet. It is known for its flower-andfruit-bearing dragon blood tree, which resembles an umbrella and gets its name from the dark red sap it secretes.

A cyclone is the same as a hurricane or a typhoon; their names only change because of their location.

Hurricanes are spawned east of the international date line. Typhoons develop west of the line. They are known as cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Australia.

Seasonal rains are nothing unusual for southern Oman this time of year. While the rest of the Arabian Peninsula bakes in areas where temperatures near 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), those in the sleepy port city of Salalah enjoy rainy weather that sees fog and cool air wrap around its lush mountainsides. Temperatures drop down around 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) during its annual monsoon festival.

Powerful cyclones, howev-

er, are rare. Over a roughly 100-year period ending in 1996, only 17 recorded cyclones struck Oman. In 2007, Cyclone Gonu tore through the sultanate and later even reached Iran, causing $4 billion in damage in Oman alone and killing over 70 people across the Mideast.

The last hurricane-strength storm to strike within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of Salalah came in May 1959, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's archives. However, that cyclone was categorized as a Category 1 hurricane, meaning it only had winds of up to 95 mph (152 kph).

Mekunu, which means "mullet" in Dhivehi, the language spoken in the Mal-

Men walk on a road flooded after heavy rain and strong winds caused damage in Hadibu as Cyclone Mekunu pounded the Yemeni island of Socotra, Thursday, May 24, 2018.

Associated Press

dives, is on track to potentially be a Category 2 hurricane. It also comes just days after Cyclone Sagar struck Somalia.

Late on Thursday night, all was quiet in Salalah, the hometown of Oman's longtime ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said. q

A10 WORLD

Friday 25 May 2018

NEWS

N. Korea demolishes nuclear test site as journalists watch Associated Press PUNGGYE-RI, North Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made good on his promise to demolish his country's nuclear test site, which was formally closed in a series of huge explosions Thursday as a group of foreign journalists looked on.

The explosions at the test site deep in the mountains of the North's sparsely populated northeast were supposed to build confidence ahead of a planned summit next month between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. But Trump canceled the meeting on Thursday, citing "tremendous anger and open hostility" in a North Korean statement released earlier in the day.

The blasts were centered on three tunnels at the underground site and a number of buildings in the surrounding area. North Korea held a closing ceremony afterward with officials from its nuclear arms program in attendance.

The group of journalists that witnessed the demolition, which touched off land-

People watch a TV screen showing a satellite image of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Korea during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 24, 2018.

Associated Press

slides near the tunnel entrances and sent up clouds of smoke and dust, included an Associated Press Television crew.

North Korea's state media called the closure of the site part of a process to build "a nuclear-free, peaceful world" and "global nuclear disarmament."

"The dismantling of the

nuclear test ground conducted with high-level transparency has clearly attested once again to the proactive and peace-loving efforts of the DPRK government being made for assuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and over the world," the North's official news agency reported late Thursday.

North Korea's formal name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Kim announced his plan to close the site, where North Korea has conducted all six of its underground nuclear tests, ahead of a summit with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in in April and the planned summit with Trump next month.

But even as North Korea made good on its gesture of detente, it lobbed a verbal salvo at Washington, calling Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy" and saying it is just as ready to meet in a nuclear confrontation as at the negotiating table.

Trump responded by canceling the summit, saying in a letter to Kim, "Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."

North Korea's decision to close the Punggye-ri nucle-

ar test site had generally been seen as a welcome gesture by Kim to set a positive tone ahead of the summit. In a statement earlier Thursday, South Korea's National Security Council called the closing the North's "first measure toward complete denuclearization."

Not everyone was as optimistic, however.

The closing of the site is not an irreversible move and would need to be followed by many more significant measures to meet Trump's demand for real denuclearization.

North Korea also did not invite international nuclear weapons inspectors, opting instead for the impact of the television footage to impress the world.

The event was, indeed, impressive.

The first blast the visiting journalists witnessed came at around 11 a.m. after they made a 12-hour plus trip by train and convoy through the night and over bumpy dirt roads. That explosion collapsed the complex's north tunnel, which was used for five nuclear tests between 2009 and last year.

Two other explosions, at around 2:20 p.m. and 4 p.m., collapsed the west and south tunnels, according to officials. North Korea's state media stressed that

those two tunnels could have been used to carry out more tests at any time, countering reports that the Punggye-ri site had been rendered largely unusable after the six tests already conducted there.

Also blown up were observation posts and barracks used by guards and other workers at the facility. A tunnel on the eastern side of the facility had already been shut down after an initial nuclear test in 2006.

North Korea said the demolition of the facility did not cause any leakage of radioactive materials or have any "adverse impact on the surrounding ecological environment."

The journalists were allowed to stay at the site for about nine hours.

Getting to the remote site required an overnight train ride from Wonsan, a port city east of the capital, Pyongyang. In typically secretive fashion, officials instructed the media not to open the blinds that covered the windows of their train cars. They also were not allowed to shoot photos from the vehicles they took to the site from the nearest train station, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. Back in Pyongyang, the outburst directed at Pence, issued in the name of a top Foreign Ministry official, came on the heels of another sharp rebuke of Trump's newly appointed national security adviser, John Bolton, and raised concerns that a major gap had opened between the two sides.

Choe Son Hui, a vice minister of foreign affairs, was quoted by the state-run news agency as slamming "ignorant" and "stupid" comments Pence made in an interview with Fox News that compared nuclearcapable North Korea to Libya. Libya gave up its nuclear program at an early stage only to see its longtime dictator overthrown and brutally killed years later. The summit plan had hit a number of speed bumps recently as both sides began trading barbs and taking tougher positions.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Friday 25 May 2018

Congo says confirmed Ebola cases have reached 30; 8 deaths

By SALEH MWANAMILONGO Associated Press KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo's fight to rein in a deadly Ebola outbreak has authorities crossing the border to buy up available thermometers, a World Health Organization official said, as the health ministry on Thursday announced that confirmed cases had reached 30, including eight deaths.

The spread of the often lethal hemorrhagic fever to a provincial capital of 1.2 million people has health officials scrambling to monitor for Ebola at busy ports in the capital, Kinshasa, which is downstream from the infected city of Mbandaka on the Congo River.

Mbandaka is one of three health zones with confirmed Ebola cases, complicating efforts to find and monitor hundreds of people who have been in contact with those infected.

Two of the zones are rural and remote, with few roads or other infrastructure.

In Kinshasa, travelers streamed off boats at ports on the Congo River and ran a gauntlet of health officials watching for signs of infection.

"We want to ensure that ports and airports are effectively protected," WHO's Congo representative Allarangar Yakouide told The Associated Press. "I assure you, we have already taken all the thermometers that are in Kinshasa, practically all the thermometers, and there are even colleagues who are going on the other side to Brazzaville to buy thermometers."

The Republic of Congo's capital is across the river from Kinshasa, a city of

10 million. A wave of panic briefly hit Kinshasa on Wednesday after rumors spread that an Ebola case had been admitted to the Kinshasa General Hospital.

Yakouide denied it, saying no cases had been confirmed in the capital and warning against spreading false reports which "could create panic and undermine the effectiveness of the response to the Ebola outbreak."

As of Thursday, Congo's health ministry reported 30 confirmed Ebola cases, 14 probable ones and 14 suspected.

This is Congo's ninth Ebola outbreak since 1976, when the disease was first identified. The virus has twice made it to Kinshasa but was effectively contained.

Some residents of the capital expressed confidence that the outbreak would not reach their city from the rural villages or Mbandaka, which is an hour's flight from Kinshasa but several days' journey by barge.

"The victim will be far from others so that he cannot contaminate them.

The doctors have already gone down to the site to see what's going on, so how is this disease going to happen here in Kinshasa?" asked Georgette Boluka, a market vendor at one of Kinshasa's ports.

Concerns remained among health officials, however, after the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres on Wednesday said two infected patients who fled from an Ebola treatment center in Mbandaka later died.

"Forced hospitalization is not the solution to this epidemic" and instead more community engagement

is needed to prevent the virus' spread, said MSF's emergency coordinator, Henry Gray. The WHO emergencies chief, Dr. Peter Salama, warned Wednesday that "the next few weeks will really tell if this outbreak is going to expand to urban areas or if we're going to be able to keep it under control.q

A health care worker takes the temperatures of passengers at Ngobila Beach in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Associated Press

A12 WORLD

Friday 25 May 2018

NEWS

Militant Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles has died

By GISELA SALOMON Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Former CIA operative and militant Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who was accused of organizing a string of 1997 Havana hotel bombings and a 1976 Cuban airline bombing that killed 73 people, has died. He was 90.

Posada, who had been diagnosed with throat cancer about five years ago, died Wednesday in Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood north of Miami.

"An extraordinary life has ended," Arturo Hernandez, a lawyer for the hardline exile, told The Associated Press. "It's a very sad morning for me, to say farewell to such a great man."

Posada had been acquitted in 2011 by a federal jury in El Paso, Texas, of lying to U.S. officials about his role in the Havana bombings to win political asylum.

He was among a core group of Cuban exiles the CIA trained in the early 1960s in a failed effort to overthrow Fidel Castro's fledgling communist government. Unlike many others, he never renounced violence as a way to bring about change on the island.

"If Castro came through the door, I'd kill him, not because I hate him but because I'd kill a cockroach too," Posada told the AP at one point during a series of interviews between 2009 and 2010.

To many older exiles, Posada was a freedom fighter who did what was necessary to attempt to overthrow a dictatorship. Many other people, like Peter Kornbluh, head of the independent National Security Archive's Cuba project that fought years to declassify documents relating to Posada, viewed him as an unrepentant terrorist.

"The CIA created and unleashed a Frankenstein," he said of Posada.

Cuban government website Cubadebate on Wednesday described him as a "terrorist" whose victims included the innocent passengers on the plane that exploded after taking off

In this April 13, 2011, file photo, anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles gestures as he responds to a reporter during a news conference in Miami.

Associated Press

from Barbados in 1976. It said he died "without having paid for this crime nor the many other terrorist acts that are a feature of his criminal record."

Posada always publicly denied involvement in the bombing of the bombing of a Cuban airliner that had taken off from Barbados, the deadliest in-flight explosion until the 1988 Pan Am flight bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.

But in a 1998 New York Times interview, he took credit for the Havana bombings, which killed an Italian tourist, before later recanting.

When the AP asked about that interview and the bombings in 2009, Posada initially said he didn't hear or understand the Times' questions, then mentioned his lawyer, then stopped, laughed and shrugged.

Posada enjoyed an official and sometimes tumultuous relationship with the CIA until 1975. Yet throughout his years living in Latin America, he retained at least some contact with U.S. officials, culminating in the 2011 trial and acquittal. He returned to a hero's welcome in Miami's Cuban community.

Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, in 1928, Posada studied chemistry at the Univer-

sity of Havana, and briefly worked for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.

Following the Castro forces' final triumph in the Cuban Revolution on New Year's Day 1959, he joined the political opposition and was imprisoned briefly. He fled to Mexico and eventually the U.S. in 1961.

Other members of his family, including his brother and sister, remained in Cuba and he continued to send them money throughout his life through friends and other emissaries.

Several years after arriving in the U.S., he divorced his first wife and married Elina Nieves, with whom he had a son and a daughter. The lived apart for much of their marriage, but in his later years, Posada boasted that Nieves still did his laundry.

Posada trained for but never participated in the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba organized by the CIA. Through that experience, he became lifelong friends with the late Cuban exile and political kingmaker Jorge Mas Canosa, a reported benefactor and with whom he graduated from the U.S. Army's officer training school at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Posada claimed on a

number of occasions Mas Canosa helped support him financially.

Early on, Posada's CIA handlers described him as reliable and even a reasonable voice among the exiles, whom he was willing to inform on, according to declassified agency documents released at the request of the National Security Archives.

"A15 is not a typical kind of 'boom and bang' individual," CIA handler Grover Lythcott wrote in 1966, using a code name for Posada.

"He is acutely aware of the international implications of ill-planned or overly enthusiastic activities against Cuba."

The agency has refused to declassify many documents related to Posada, but official summaries of those documents released to the Archive, show U.S. officials were particularly concerned about Posada's relationship with the mafia-linked casino operator Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal.

Another summary shows the agency was also concerned he'd taken CIA explosives and other items with him when in 1967 he took a job with Venezuela's state security agency, which he later headed.

He was running his own se-

curity firm in Venezuela by the time he was accused of coordinating the 1976 bombing of the Cuban airliner that exploded over the Caribbean shortly after taking off from Barbados.

Posada was arrested when two men who worked for his small firm confessed to planting the bombs.

Posada — who still had strong ties to the then-Venezuelan government — was acquitted by a military court.

He later escaped from jail dressed as a priest while awaiting a second trial in a civilian court.

He made his way to El Salvador, where he helped the Reagan administration and U.S. Army Col. Oliver North resupply neighboring Nicaragua's rightist Contra rebels against the left-leaning Sandinista government.

Posada flew beneath the radar for years — moving to Guatemala, where he survived a 1990 assassination attempt that left his face and body bullet-scarred and permanently damaged his speech.

Then in 2004, he was convicted in Panama in connection with a failed assassination attempt against Castro. While in prison, Posada became a prolific painter. His subjects ranged from Cuban independence hero and poet Jose Marti to Mother Teresa and then Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, who pardoned him in 2005 at the behest of several Cuban-American lawmakers from South Florida.

Posada resurfaced in Miami in 2005. Two months later, he was arrested, following international pressure on the George W. Bush administration to hold him to the same standard as other accused terrorists.

The U.S. refused to turn him over to Venezuela or Cuba, citing fears he might face torture, nor did it ever try him directly on any terrorist charges, just the immigration charges.

Opinions were as widely split over the verdict as they were over Posada himself.

He is survived by his wife and two adult children.q

A13

Friday 25 May 2018

q

Aruba to Me ORANJESTAD – Aruba Today likes to welcome readers to participate in our newspaper. You can see that in our Honored Guest-publications, specials like on Valentine’s Day and on other occasions.

Throughout the year you are always welcome to send us your vacation picture(s) together with completing the sentence: Aruba to me is …….. (Email: Linda.

Reijnders@cspnv.com) For today’s newspaper we received a great picture from Doris Frechette Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. She wrote: Aruba to me is...Special friends, Good times, Wonderful Memories 2018!

In the photo are Colleen Devincent Kretzinger and Mike, (she made the banner), Doris Viola and Walter, Jacqui Sykes and Michael, Debbie Lampe Stakem and Joe, Doris Frechette, Ruthie Janeiro, Marie Lamoureux and Dave, Alexis Devincent and Bob, Denise and Pete, JC and Bob. We met our friends at the bunker bar and we reunite every year at the same time.q

A14 LOCAL

Friday 25 May 2018

Commit the Sin of Gluttony with ‘El Diablito’ at The Lobby this weekend World-renowned Mexican Chef Emilio Macías PALM BEACH – The Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino is preparing for a unique two night culinary invasion; “El Diablito takes over The Lobby” on Friday, May 25th and Saturday, May 26th.

‘El Diablito’ is a culinary concept created by star Chef Emilio Macías where he invades other restaurants and creates a culinary “chaos” with different and unusual upscale Mexican dishes. Emilio Macías is a world-renowned Mexican nomad Chef that travels the world for culinary inspiration while bringing his own restaurant project ‘El Diablito’ to different restaurants.

Emilio is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, and has worked in various international Michelin Star Restaurants such as Mugaritz in

Renteria, El Racò de Can Fabes in Sant Celoni, Jean Luc Figueras in Barcelona and Atrio in Caceres, Spain, La Peca, Lonigo, Italy, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in

Oxford, England and RyuGin, Tokyo Japan.

El Diablito’s menu will reveal the best flavors of Mexico with authentic up-

scale dishes demonstrating the cooking style and presentation techniques of star Chef Emilio Macías. During the event there will also be a special Mexican cocktail menu available with Margaritas, Micheladas and Tequila cocktails to mention a few.

The Lobby, located at the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, will be converted into a mischievous and enticing Mexican pop-up affair for these two nights, with entertainment by a live DJ. Reservations are required as only 70 seats are available per night. Make your reservation today by calling 520-6648 or 520-6646 from Monday to Friday between 9AM and 6PM. About Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino: Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino boasts 414 guestrooms -- the most spacious on the island -- each with large, private balconies overlooking lush land-

scape and the sparkling waters of the Caribbean Sea. On property, seven restaurants and cafes provide fare from light to elegant, while the largest casino in Aruba, a 6,500 square-foot spa, free-form swimming pool, the H2Oasis adults-only pool and high-energy health club offer entertaining diversions.

To obtain more information call the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino at 1.800.228.9290 or visit www. arubamarriott.com. Connect with the Aruba Marriott’s official Facebook fan page by visiting www. facebook.com/ArubaMarriott and follow on Twitter @ ArubaMarriott. q

LOCAL A15

Friday 25 May 2018

Casimir Honored as Goodwill Embassador

Ms. Christy Honored

ORANJESTAD - Recently Emely Ridderstaat from the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure to honor Casimir Woznica as “Goodwill Embassador” with 22 consecutive years coming to Aruba.

PALM BEACH - Recently Ms. Christy DeLuca was honored as “Distinguished Visitor” with 10 consecutive years coming to Aruba.

The honorary titles are presented in the name of the Minister of Tourism to loyal visitors with consecutives years visits. Casimir has been coming to Aruba since he was a baby.q

The ceremony was conducted by Emely Ridderstaat of the Aruba Tourism Authority and also the staff of the Barcelo Aruba was present on this honoring.q

A16 LOCAL

Friday 25 May 2018

For the first time with the capacity of almost 6 thousand passengers Aruba welcomes one of the biggest cruise ships in the world

‘FREEDOM OF THE SEAS’ counts for 9.7% of the total cruise tourism in the island this year

ORANJESTAD – With great satisfaction the Minister of Tourism together with the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA), Aruba Ports Authority (APA), SEL Maduro & Sons, Department of Immigration and other authorities have welcomed the first visit of the cruise ship ‘Freedom of the Seas’ to the island of Aruba yesterday.

The ship sails under the company Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and is one of the 15 biggest cruise ships in the world with a capacity of 4.515 passengers and 1.360 members of tribulation. Half of the ships routes have Aruba included this year and the cruise line Royal Caribbean Cruise Line represents 12.4 % of the total cruise tourism that

is projected for this year in Aruba.

Like always, APA has done the required preparation works to welcome ships of this size, called ‘Megaship/Megaliner’ another example is ‘Oasis of the Seas’. The official welcome ceremony was executed, meaning the ‘water salute’ and the interchanging of the memory placard for its first visit. ‘Freedoms Of The Seas’ will cruise for 7 nights in the Caribbean and before Aruba it visited Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Curacao, Aruba is its third destination. After the ship will go to St. Kitts and back to Puerto Rico. Next week the same itinerary will be repeated. The ship is 339 meter long. It is one of the nine biggest ships of

the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines which is one of the most significant cruise liners in the world.

A total of 74.788 passengers visit Aruba this year with the ‘Freedom of the Seas’, counting for 9.7% of the total expected visitors in 2018. In the first 4 months of 2018, Aruba saw an increase of 364.456 /+5.9% - 20 thousand passengers more, compared to the same period in 2017.

The total number of visitors declined in April due to climate circumstances, among other heavy winds that had some effect.q

A17

Friday 25 May 2018

Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn, right, and Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson fight during the first period of Game 7 of the NHL hockey playoffs Eastern Conference finals Wednesday, May 23, 2018, in Tampa, Fla. Associated Press

Reds VS Pirates

Ovechkin, Holtby shine in Game 7, Caps beat Lightning 4-0

By FRED GOODALL Associated Press TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Alex Ovechkin lifted the Prince of Wales Trophy, spun around and set it back down on a table.

The rest of the Capitals joined him for a team photo after beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 on Wednesday night in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final, a victory that sent Washington to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years.

A decade of playoff frustration is fading fast.

"I think Ovie has been on a mission," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.

"They wanted this game, no question."

Ovechkin scored early and Andre Burakovsky added two second-period goals as the Caps continued to shed a label as postseason underachievers.

Continued on Page 21

Reds Left Pirates Ship Sinking Cincinnati Reds' Scooter Gennett (3) reaches on a fielding error by Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Ivan Nova to first baseman David Freese, left, to load the bases in the third inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 24, 2018, in Cincinnati.

Associated Press

A18 SPORTS

Friday 25 May 2018

A look at Liverpool's players in the Champions League final

By STEVE DOUGLAS Associated Press LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — A look at Liverpool's players ahead of Saturday's Champions League final against Real Madrid: LORIS KARIUS Karius supplanted Simon Mignolet as first-choice goalkeeper at the turn of the year and has kept the spot ever since. The 24-year-old German's handling can be suspect, though he has barely made a mistake in the last five months and manager Juergen Klopp appreciates Karius' ability with his feet.

TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD Alexander-Arnold has broken through this season, initially alternating with Joe Gomez before making the position his own and even forcing his way into England squad for the World Cup. The 19-year-old right back's surging runs down the wing are a feature of Liverpool's attacking play and Alexander-Arnold often takes direct free kicks ahead of the senior members of the team.

ANDREW ROBERTSON Released by Celtic when he was 15, Robertson played for free for Scottish team Queen's Park in 201314. He was then relegated from the Premier League with Hull last year. He only broke into the Liverpool team in December following an injury to Alberto

In this Saturday, March 31, 2018 file photo, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah runs past Crystal Palace's James Tomkins during the English Premier League soccer match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool at Selhurst Park stadium in London.

Associated Press

Moreno and hasn't looked back, quickly becoming a fan favorite with his work rate and attacking runs.

VIRGIL VAN DIJK Van Dijk is soccer's most expensive defender after moving from Southampton to Liverpool for $99 million in January. He is a commanding presence at center back, and has brought authority and assuredness to a defense that was widely seen as frail and errorprone. The Dutchman is a threat at corners, too.

DEJAN LOVREN Lovren is an oft-criticized center back who acknowledges that he has grown in confidence since play-

ing alongside Van Dijk. He might not have been playing in the final if it wasn't for an injury to Joel Matip, a Klopp signing from the Bundesliga. Real Madrid might choose to target Lovren, who excels in a deeper-lying defense and can look ponderous in a high line.

JORDAN HENDERSON Henderson is looking to become the fifth Liverpool captain to lift European soccer's biggest prize. He has grown as a leader in his position at the base of the midfield this season, although he hasn't always been assured of his place in the team because of

the impressive form of Emre Can. Henderson works hard and keeps it simple with his passing.

GEORGINIO WIJNALDUM Wijnaldum is another who is in the team because of recent injuries to others, chiefly Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Emre Can. Yet he is selfless and an unsung hero, rarely letting Liverpool down and often popping up with important goals — almost always at Anfield.

JAMES MILNER Known for his work rate, tirelessness and versatility, Milner has become an unlikely assist-maker in Liverpool's run to the Champions League final, setting

up a competition-high nine goals. Far from the most glamorous player in the team but one of the most important.

MOHAMED SALAH Salah is having the season of his career, with 44 goals in 51 games, and could yet win the Ballon d'Or if he guides Liverpool to the Champions League title.

The Egypt forward has an uncanny calmness in front of goal, with his chipped finishes or curling shots into the far corner becoming his trademark. He is positioned on the right of the front three, but is often found centrally and the furthest forward.

ROBERTO FIRMINO Firmino sets the tone for the pressing game that Klopp demands and is often seen harassing opposition defenders and midfielders, winning the ball back. But the Brazilian has added goals — a career-high 27 in all competitions this season — to his game, making him a brilliant all-round striker.

Firmino often drops deep to help out his midfield when Liverpool is under pressure.

SADIO MANE Mane has often gone under the radar this season because of the prolific scoring of Salah and the all-around improvement of Firmino, but he has come into form in the final months of the season. q

Lyon beats Wolfsburg 4-1 to win Women's Champions League

Players from Lyon pose with the trophy after winning the UEFA Women's Champions League Final soccer match between Lyon and Wolfsburg at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, May 24, 2018.

Associated Press

Associated Press KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Lyon scored three goals in five minutes to beat Wolfsburg 4-1 in extra time and win the Women's Champions League for the third year running on Thursday.

After an often-quiet 90 minutes, the final roared into life in extra time when Wolfsburg's Pernille Harder scored in the 93rd minute with a low shot from distance as Lyon goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi — hurt in an earlier collision — was slow to react.

However, Wolfsburg collapsed when midfielder

Alexandra Popp was sent off when she picked up her second booking for a clumsy challenge.

Lyon pulled level with Amandine Henry's half-volley in the 98th and took the lead almost immediately when Shanice van de Sanden's cross found Eugenie Le Sommer in front of goal.

Ada Hegerberg made it 3-1 soon after, and Camille Abily added a fourth in the 116th. Both goals also came off crosses from substitute Van de Sanden.

After Wolfsburg scored, "we showed a lot of solidarity and we found all the

resources we needed to win," Henry said. "I've never had the chance to play a match with so many twists and surprises." It's Lyon's fifth Champions League title.

Wolfsburg coach Stephan Lerch said injuries and playing 120 minutes to win the German Cup final on Saturday hurt his team but "we put up a great fight here."

Since 2010, the final has been played in or near the city hosting the men's Champions League final.

That ends next season, with the final in the Hungarian capital Budapest while the men play in Madrid.q

SPORTS A19

Friday 25 May 2018

Suarez's grand slam leads Reds over slumping Pirates 5-4

By JOE KAY Associated Press CINCINNATI (AP) — Eugenio Suarez wanted to hit one deep enough to get the runner in from third base.

He got all of a hanging slider — and four runs with one swing.

Suarez hit a grand slam off Ivan Nova, who dropped his sixth straight start against Cincinnati, and Jesse Winker added a solo shot Thursday as the Reds pulled away to a 5-4 victory over the slumping Pittsburgh Pirates.

Suarez's third career grand slam off Nova (2-5) went farther than he'd hoped, landing a few rows deep in the left field seats.

"If there's a guy on third and less than two outs, I'll at least try to get a sacrifice fly," said Suarez, who leads the team with 38 RBIs. "It was a breaking ball down and it. I was able to catch it right at the break."

The Reds took two of three in the series, completing a 3-4 homestand. Pittsburgh has dropped five of six.

Luis Castillo (4-4) gave up four hits in six innings, including a two-run homer

by David Freese . Castillo has allowed two earned runs or less in each of his last five starts.

Austin Meadows hit his second homer of the series, a two-run shot off Amir Garrett in the ninth that cut it to 5-4. Jared Hughes got the last two outs for his second save. The Reds are without closer Raisel Iglesias, who went on the 10-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained biceps in his nonthrowing arm.

Nova had another tough time against the Reds, extending his streak into a new season. The righthander lost his last start against Cincinnati in 2016 and went 0-4 in four starts last year, three of them at Great American Ball Park.

He had a big role in his latest undoing.

Nova hadn't walked a batter in his last two starts, but opened the third inning by walking Castillo. He also had a throwing error on Scooter Gennett's comeback grounder that helped

Cincinnati Reds' Eugenio Suarez watches his grand slam hit off Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Ivan Nova in the third inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 24, 2018, in Cincinnati.

Associated Press

the Reds load the bases.

Suarez hit his third career grand slam on a hanging slider.

"I'm just missing," Nova said.

"In the first few innings, I felt really good. I got into that one inning, and I walk the pitcher to start the inning.

On the groundball, I miss (retiring) the guy at first base."

It's been a rough month all around for the most experienced starter on the staff.

Nova is 0-4 in five May starts with a 7.60 ERA. "He's the healthiest he's been," manager Clint Hurdle said. "It's just inconsistency. That's kind of where we are. He's doing everything he can to get himself in a better place."

Winker homered off Nova in the fifth inning for a 5-0 lead.

SLAMMED PIRATES Suarez's grand slam was the Reds' second of the season. Gennett has the other — also against the Pirates. He connected in Cincinnati's series-opening 7-2 win on Tuesday.

HOT ROOKIE Meadows is 11 for 25 in his first six major league games including two doubles, three homers and five RBIs. He had three hits Thursday — a single, double and homer.

HARRISON CONTAINED

Pirates leadoff hitter Josh Harrison went 0 for 4, a day after he had four hits including a game-winning triple in the 12th inning. Harrison missed 30 games with a broken left hand. In four games back, he's gone 8 for 19.

RIGGLEMAN'S RECORD The Reds are 15-18 under interim manager Jim Riggleman, who took over when Bryan Price was fired on April 19.

TRAINER'S ROOM Pirates: C Francisco Cervelli was available to pinch hit.

He hurt his right hand while catching in the 10th inning of Pittsburgh's 5-4 win on Wednesday night and came out of the game in the 12th.

Reds: Joey Votto got a day of rest from the starting lineup, but pinch hit and drew a walk. He's 5 for 27 in his last nine games with seven strikeouts. His 1,480th appearance tied Dan Driessen for ninth on the Reds' career list. Frank Robinson is eighth with 1,502 games.

UP NEXT Pirates: Joe Musgrove (00) comes off the DL and starts against the Cardinals at PNC Park as Pittsburgh begins a six-game homestand. Musgrove has been sidelined since spring training by a strained right shoulder. St. Louis goes with John Gant (1-1).

Reds: Sal Romano (2-5) tries to rebound from his worst start when the Reds open a three-game series in Denver. Romano gave up a career-high seven runs and six walks during a 10-0 loss to the Cubs on Saturday.

The Rockies start Jon Gray (4-6).q

A20 SPORTS

Friday 25 May 2018

Justify gallops in preparation for Belmont and Triple Crown

By GARY B. GRAVES Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Justify has begun preparing for the Belmont Stakes and pursuit of the Triple Crown with an energetic gallop around Churchill Downs.

Back at work since returning from last weekend's muddy half-length victory over Bravazo in the Preakness, the unbeaten chestnut colt galloped 1 3/8 miles under a clear sky on a dry, fast surface Thursday morning. Justify won the Kentucky Derby under sloppy conditions here on May 5. Jimmy Barnes, assistant trainer to Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, said the horse "really seemed to enjoy it" this time.

Justify aims to follow muddy wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with a Belmont victory on June 9 to become the 13th Triple Crown champion and the first since American Pharoah in 2015. Baffert has trained both colts and has guided Justify to a 5-0 start as a 3-year-old.

Baffert is expected to return to Louisville early next week. He'll see a horse that looked none the worse for

Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify, ridden by exercise rider Humberto Gomez, works out at Churchill Downs, Thursday, May 24, 2018, in in Louisville, Ky. Associated Press

wear after winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown in sloppy conditions.

Barnes' hope is for improved conditions at the Belmont, where he believes Justify can run even better. The 1 1/2-mile race, the Triple Crown's longest leg, poses a distance chal-

lenge against a likely field of fresher, rested horses out to deny a bid for history.

Justify is enjoying something of a break as well after two races in three weeks. In his first work since the Preakness, the horse looked lively with exercise rider Humberto Gomez aboard. Hall of

Fame jockey Mike Smith will ride Justify in the Belmont.

"I saw just what I needed to see," Barnes said. "Had a good bounce in his step, very happy. Just took it easy with him out there, went about a mile and three-eighths, just give him a nice, easy first day back

out, which we did."

Barnes added, "The horse does run in the mud well, but you ought to see him on a dry track."

Justify walked the shed row for several days in Baffert's barn before hitting the track to a small crowd of onlookers. The remaining training schedule will be determined, but the son of Scat Daddy by Stage Magic will likely travel to New York on June 6.

If Thursday offered any indication, Justify was glad to have dry footing for a change. "The horse's energy level was still good," said Starlight Racing managing partner Jack Wolf, whose operation is teamed with three other ownership groups. "I was talking to Mike Smith after the race and he was commenting on how he eased the horse up at the end. I asked him if he could feel the other horse (Bravazo) closing, and he said he could feel him but didn't feel he was in any danger of losing.

"According to Mike, he thinks this last race will really help prepare him to run a good race at the Belmont."q

Pakistan bowls England out for 184, reaches 50-1 in reply

England's David Malan, second right, and England's Ben Stokes in the slips react to the bowling of England's Stuart Broad during the first day of play of the first test cricket match between England and Pakistan.

Associated Press

Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Pakistan provoked England's latest batting collapse by combining disciplined bowling with superb catching before showing resistance in its reply to dominate the opening day of the first test at Lord's on Thursday.

A new international season

started with some familiar problems for England, which stumbled to 43-3 after winning the toss and then lost its last five wickets for 16 runs in 4.4 overs to be dismissed for 184 soon after tea.

Opener Alastair Cook was the only batsman to stand out, making 70 in his record-

leveling 153rd consecutive test. Pakistan was 50-1 at stumps, trailing by 134 runs.

Pakistan seamers bowled a good line and length on a day when the ball swung around and moved off the seam. Mohammad Abbas and Hasan Ali each took four wickets. Cook and Jonny Bairstow (27) were both bowled from deliveries that shaped in and seamed away to hit off stump.

Allied to that were some surprisingly good catches by a team that is often criticized for its fielding, with Asad Shafiq taking two sharp catches at second slip to remove the recalled Jos Buttler and 20-year-old debutant Dom Bess, while Mohammad Amir dived to his right to snaffle Mark Wood for the final wicket.

England's total was its lowest in the first innings at

Lord's since 2005 and the spotlight invariably fell on England captain Joe Root and his decision to bat first in what proved to be difficult conditions. Moments after Root made his choice, Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed said he would have wanted to bowl if given the choice.

"It was an interesting one," Cook said. "We'll only know at the end of the game if it was the right or wrong decision. ... We were probably 60-70 (runs) short on that wicket, and it's probably going to be a first innings vs. fourth innings game. Chasing 250 on that last day could be hard work."

Pakistan lost Imam-ul-Haq, trapped lbw to Stuart Broad for 4, early in the reply but Azhar Ali (18) and Haris Sohail (21) held out in the face of some probing

seam bowling by Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Mark Wood.

Sohail was dropped on 16

by Ben Stokes, who dived to his right from third slip in front of Dawid Malam at second slip.

Pakistan won by 75 runs at Lord's in the first test of the series in 2016.

Cook's run of successive test matches, which stretches from 2006, tied the record held by former Australia captain Allan Border.

"It would be a nice one to knock off," Cook said.

"You need a little bit of luck, don't you, not to break a finger or anything?" the former test captain added.

"The only time I've broken a finger has been away from a test match. The mental side is harder than the physical side — I just stand in the slips so it's all right."q

SPORTS A21

Friday 25 May 2018

Ovechkin, Holtby shine in Game 7, Caps beat Lightning 4-0 Continued from Page 17

Braden Holtby stopped 29 shots for his second straight shutout and the Lightning, who led the NHL in goals during the regular season, failed to score in the last 159 minutes, 27 seconds of the series — a stretch of nearly eight periods.

Ovechkin, who had never advanced beyond the second round, scored 1:02 into the winner-take-all showdown he had described as probably the "biggest game in my life."

"The first goal was very important," Ovechkin said.

"After that you could see we have all the momentum on our side. Holts was unstoppable today. He was special. Everybody was all in. Everybody was sacrificing their bodies. I think we all deserve the win."

To earn a spot in the Stanley Cup Final, where they'll play the Vegas Golden Knights, the Capitals beat the top-seeded Lightning three times on the road, improving to 8-2 away from home this postseason.

It's Washington's first Cup Final appearance since 1998, and the first during Ovechkin's 13-year career.

"We played a great game," defenseman John Carlson said. "We deserved to win this."

Two games after being a healthy scratch for Game 5, Burakovsky became the 17th player to score a goal for Washington in the playoffs this year — four shy of the NHL record — when he beat Andrei Vasilevskiy on a breakaway at 8:59 of the second period.

The winger, who played two games in the first round against Columbus before sitting out 10 straight with an upper-body injury, added a breakaway goal to make it 3-0 heading into the last period.

Washington Capitals left wing Andre Burakovsky, center, celebrates his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning with teammates Dmitry Orlov, left, and Lars Eller (20) during the second period of Game 7 of the NHL hockey playoffs.

Associated Press

Nicklas Backstrom had an empty-netter to complete the rout.

"What a game. What an experience. We had a lot of guys pitching in," winger T.J. Oshie said. "The biggest guy of all had to be Holts.

He played fantastic, back to back shutouts."

Tampa Bay, which rebounded from losing the first two games at home to win three straight for a 3-2 series lead, had plenty of chances. A couple of shots clanged off the post, Yanni Gourde was unable to get his stick on a loose puck in

front on an empty net and the game gradually slipped away.

Washington was the more physical team in evening the series with a bruising 3-0 victory in Game 6. They played with urgency from the start again Wednesday night and never let up.

Tampa Bay's last goal in the series came 33 seconds into the second period of Game 5, which the Lightning went on to win 3-2.

"We're here to win as team, no matter who gets the credit," said Holtby, the fifth goalie to deliver a Game 7

shutout to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Final.

"I felt we could have won every game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

"We ran into a tough Washington team that was probably feeling the same thing, and once you get this far you've probably done some magical things on the way."

It was the 33rd time in league history that a Game 7 was required to determine a Stanley Cup finalist.

Home teams are 21-12 in those games.

Tampa Bay also played

Game 7 in the Eastern Conference final in 2015, when they blanked the New York Rangers, and again two years ago, when they lost 2-1 to Pittsburgh.

Both of those deciding games were on the road.

The Lightning had never lost a Game 7 at home before Wednesday night.

"It's going to take a few days to digest this. It's tough to sit here right now and think of positive things and how it was a pretty great season," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said.

"It doesn't seem that way when you have this group — and we've been to this position before — and you can't find a way to give yourself a chance a win.

We thought we had that group. It's just an empty feeling right now."

Notes: Ovechkin and Backstrom made their 11th career Game 7 appearance, one shy of Boston's Zdeno Chara for the most among active NHL players. In addition to Chara, only five other players in NHL history have appeared in more Game 7s: Patrick Roy (13), Scott Stevens (13), Glenn Anderson (12), Ken Daneyko (12) and Stephane Yelle (12). ...

Evgeny Kuznetsov's assist on Ovechkin's early goal extended his points streak to 10 games. ... Vasilevskiy made 19 saves. The Lightning outshot the Capitals (29-23) for the first time in the series.q

A22 SPORTS

Friday 25 May 2018

Yates' Giro lead cut in half, Schachmann wins 18th stage Associated Press PRATO NEVOSO, Italy (AP) — Simon Yates remained in the lead of the Giro d'Italia but the British rider's advantage over closest rival Tom Dumoulin was slashed in half after the tough 18th stage on Thursday.

Yates was dropped by his rivals on the steep Category 1 climb to Prato Nevoso and he finished 28 seconds behind defending champion Dumoulin, who crossed the line with Domenico Pozzovivo and Chris Froome.

"I was just tired, that's it. Still a few days to go. I can bounce back, no worries," Yates said.

Maximilian Schachmann of Germany won from a breakaway to claim his first victory in a Grand Tour.

Schachmann attacked heading into the final section of the climb, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Ruben Plaza and 16 ahead of Mattia Cattaneo.

The rest of the breakaway, which escaped 16 kilometers into the mainly flat 196-kilometer (122-mile) route from Abbiategrasso finished more than a minute off the pace.

"The final kilometers were

Germany's Maximilian Schachmann approaches the finish line to win the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race, from Abbiategrasso to Prato Nevoso, Italy, Thursday, May 24, 24, 2018.

Associated Press

really, really hard," said Schachmann, who rides for Quick-Step Floors. "I knew I had a good chance from the breakaway. I tried to play it safe, to not attack too early. It was really hard, we are already on stage 18 so no one has fresh legs anymore."

Yates had talked about defending his lead rather than

attacking, as he had done previously in the race and the Mitchelton-Scott cyclist stuck to his script. He followed Dumoulin when the Dutch rider made a move but had no response when Froome powered away shortly after, with two kilometers remaining.

Yates' lead was cut to 28 seconds heading into the

final three days of the Giro, which includes two brutal days in the Alps before the procession to Rome.

"I always said if I have the legs then I will keep on trying," Dumoulin said. "I had the legs today and I tried and it worked. Finally, after two and a half weeks."

Pozzovivo remained third but was 2:43 behind Yates,

with Froome a further 39 seconds behind.

Froome arrived at the Giro bidding to become the third person to win three Grand Tours in a row but the four-time Tour de France champion crashed in training before the opening time trial, lost time in a split on stage four, and injured himself again in a second crash four days later.

"It was quite a good day today," Froome said in Italian. "This is the first of three consecutive stages which will be very hard. We saw for the first time Simon not at 100 percent. That surprised me as until now he has been fantastic. I think now we're all thinking of attacking him.

"After the fall at the start I didn't feel 100 percent but each day I felt better and now I'm quite good."

There are four mountain passes on the 189-kilometer route from Venaria Reale up to Bardonecchia on Friday, followed by Saturday's "queen stage" up to Cervinia.

"I'm not worried," Yates said.

"I'm still in front.

"Tomorrow is much better for me than today. q

Serena could face Sharapova in 4th round at French Open

In this March 21, 2018, file photo, Serena Williams makes a return against Naomi Osaka, of Japan, during the Miami Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla. Associated Press

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova could meet in the fourth round of the French Open thanks to the draw on Thursday.

Yet a matchup between

three-time champion Williams and two-time champion Sharapova is far from guaranteed.

Williams resumes her comeback after maternity leave following two consecutive losses in March. She will open against 70th-ranked

Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

This will be Williams' first Grand Slam event since giving birth to her daughter in September. She hasn't played at a Grand Slam since winning the Australian Open in January 2017 while pregnant.

Ranked No. 453, Williams entered Roland Garros under the WTA's protected ranking rule but has not been granted a seed by organizers. Without a seeding, Williams was drawn in the same quarter as Sharapova, who was seeded 28th.

While nobody really knows what to expect from Williams, Sharapova had a chance to fine-tune her clay-court game last week in Rome and made it to the semifinals beating reigning French Open Jelena Osta-

penko and losing a threesetter to top-ranked Simona Halep Halep will open against Alison Riske, and Ostapenko will take on Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine.

The hard-hitting Ostapenko, who last year became the first unseeded player to win the women's title since 1933, was handed a tricky draw as she could face former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in the second round.

The tournament starts on Sunday.

In the men's draw, 10-time champion and overwhelming favorite Rafael Nadal will open against Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Nadal is arriving in Paris on the back of another impressive clay-court season.

He is 19-1 on his favorite surface, having lost just one match in the Madrid quar-

terfinals this month against Dominic Thiem.

"Having enjoyed the success I had over the last couple of weeks helps to be here with a bit more confidence," Nadal said at the draw.

Nadal is trying to become only the second player, male or female, in tennis history to win 11 singles titles at any Grand Slam event after Margaret Court, who won the Australian Open 11 times. The seventh-seeded Thiem, who ended Nadal's streaks on clay of 21 wins and 50 sets won, will face a qualifier in the first round.

He is in second-seeded Alexander Zverev's quarter and can't meet Nadal before the final. Former champion Novak Djokovic was drawn in the same half as Thiem and Zverev. He will open against a qualifier.q

SPORTS A23

Friday 25 May 2018

Indestructible Foyt back at Indy after another health scare

By MICHAEL MAROT Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A.J. Foyt still cuts an imposing figure around Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Everyone knows of him, everyone knows his record and it seems everyone here has actually met one of the greatest drivers ever.

He has seen and done virtually everything around this 2.5-mile oval, even getting retirement advice from inaugural Indianapolis 500 winner Ray Harroun three decades before he actually put it to use.

And yet, most of it wouldn't have happened without Foyt's ability to survive a series of harrowing, lifethreatening predicaments that read like a plot from a bad horror movie, including his second round with Africanized killer bees in March.

"I'm just glad the foreman had a car down there where I was working or I probably wouldn't be talking to you today," Foyt said recently during an interview in his motorhome.

It's not the first time Foyt or his fans got lucky.

He's been coming to Indianapolis every May since 1958, and every year, crowds gather around the first garage stall in Gasoline Alley waiting to have an old photograph signed by their racing hero or merely catch a glimpse of the racing star.

Nobody really knows how many more trips Foyt has because at age 83, even he knows time is running short.

"I'm not real secure on my feet like I used to be," he said. "If I have to go in a wheelchair or use crutches or a cane, I'm not going to let people see me like that.

I've got too much pride for people to see me too messed up."

The truth is Foyt has been living on borrowed time for a while now.

His list of survival tales is almost as impressive as his list of racing achievements — four Indianapolis 500 wins, the only driver to win Indy and the Daytona 500 and teaming up with Dan Gur-

In this May 19, 2018, file photo, Tony Kanaan, right, of Brazil, talks with car owner AJ Foyt after Kanaan qualified for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis.

Associated Press

ney as the only American team to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

On the track, there was a litany of crashes.

The worst might have been in 1965 at Riverside, California, when his brakes failed and Parnelli Jones pulled Foyt out of his overturned car — after a track doctor had already pronounced him dead.

Then there was 1990 at Road America when Foyt's brake pedal broke while he attempted to make a pass in the first and he was launched over the gravel

catch pit, down a hill and into the dirt. He needed surgery to save his left leg and still walks with a limp because of the damage.

"I guess they don't want me is what it looks like," Foyt joked.

Anyone who thought Foyt might be safer off the track, though, doesn't know A.J. He survived the first attack from those killer bees on his Houston ranch in 2005 and nearly drowned after putting a bulldozer in a pond in 2007.

Twice in the past seven years, he has beaten staph

infections.

Foyt also has undergone heart surgery twice, had three knee replacements and spent eight days in an induced coma in November 2014 because of a complication from a tripleheart bypass surgery. At one point, the outlook was so bleak, Foyt's wife, Lucy, told the doctors she would respect her husband's wishes to not use extraordinary measures to keep him alive.

When he woke up, he told the doctors he was at Indianapolis.

Then, in March, came a

second round with the bees this time on a ranch in Del Rio, Texas. Foyt estimates he suffered nearly twice as many stings, 200 to 300, in the second attack, and the Texan acknowledged he was swollen, sore and hurting as he tried to slap the bees out of his hair.

But the seemingly indestructible Foyt is still going.

"I never itched so bad in my life. I thought they were honey bees at first," he said.

"I may have been there (at the hospital) for seven or eight hours. They had my head packed in ice in a hospital bed and I started to throw up. I got pretty sick. But after a couple of hours, I said 'Let's get out of here.' I went home and took steroids for a couple weeks and then got myself off them. I hated to miss Sebring but I was just so sick I couldn't go there."

Everybody understood.

The harder part, though, is contemplating a future May without the iconic first four-time winner around the speedway.

"I can't imagine IMS without A.J. Foyt at all. My whole life, when I think racing, I think A.J. Foyt. He was my hero growing up," track president Doug Boles said.

"He may say he won't show up (in poor condition) but we'll make sure we get him here."

The team has already started making future plans, too.

Foyt handed his adopted son, Larry, the title of team president, giving him more of the daily responsibilities.

And the coma scare from 2014 prompted Larry Foyt to start considering how to keep A.J. Foyt Racing in business and competitive for years to come.

But those who work with him don't see Foyt slowing down anytime soon.

"He's crazy. He keeps scaring the hell out of us. But, I guess when you're 83 and you're A.J. Foyt he can do whatever the hell he wants," 2013 Indy winner Tony Kanaan said. "I'll still drag his butt up here, trust me. I don't want to think about it (Indy without Foyt)."q

A24 TECHNOLOGY

Friday 25 May 2018

Wyoming courts tech behind cryptocurrency to entice business

By MEAD GRUVER CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Block Chain Gang LLC, Crypto Cowboy, Something Something Blockchain LLC: Based on the names of dozens of new companies registering to set up shop in Wyoming, the state's effort to lure the latest tech craze appears to be paying off.

Proponents say blockchain — the ledger where transactions of digital currencies, like bitcoin, are recorded — could be the kick in the pants Wyoming needs to attract tech businesses and diversify its economy beyond fossil fuels.

As for how many of these new businesses will get off the ground in Wyoming or anywhere else, time will tell.

So far, only a small fraction of them exist as more than electronic paperwork.

Wyoming is willing to find out. In March, Gov. Matt Mead signed four blockchain-friendly bills that arguably make the leastpopulated state friendlier to the technology than any other.

One new law exempts certain types of blockchain tokens, or cryptocurrencies issued to people who invest in tech startups, from state securities laws.

Another allows businesses incorporated in Wyoming to use blockchain for record-keeping, promising easier and more accurate files on transactions and

In this March 8, 2018 photo Wyoming state Rep. Tyler Lindholm poses next to computer servers in an office building in Cheyenne, Wyo. Associated Press

shareholders. The other two facilitate cryptocurrency trading and exempt cryptocurrency from property tax — a measure more symbolic than anything because Wyoming doesn't have property taxes.

"If you can grab that tiger by the tail, your advantage over other states is tremendous," said state Rep. Tyler Lindholm, a Republican rancher and electrician who sponsored the bills.

The stakes are high as Wyoming struggles with low prices for oil and natural gas and weak demand for coal. The fossil fuels account for 20 percent of Wyoming's economy, more than any other state, and the industry's recent weakness has saddled the state with a $500 million deficit.

Other states hoping to lure tech companies with blockchain-friendly laws include Arizona and Tennessee, which also will now let businesses use blockchain for record-keeping.

One potential problem in

Wyoming: Under the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause, blockchain tokens sooner or later are likely to be regulated by federal law and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which take precedence over state securities laws and regulations.

"It's taking a sort of pro-business stance, which is great in some respects," Clyde Tinnen, a blockchain attorney with the Withers Bergman law firm in New York, said of the state incentives.

"The tricky part is that as a result of the supremacy clause, it may not be as beneficial as they hope."

In February, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton told a U.S. Senate committee that in his opinion, blockchain tokens issued to launch a company during what's called an initial coin offering in most cases appear to qualify as securities.

Initial coin offerings raised more than $4 billion worldwide in 2017, up 18-fold from 2016, according to

financial sector research provider Autonomous Research.

Meanwhile, the number of businesses registered in Wyoming with "blockchain" or "crypto" in their names has surged from 17 to over 145 since late last year, when advocates began pushing for the state to pass blockchain-friendly legislation.

One new Wyoming business, Wyoming Blockchain Technologies LLC, registered March 5, seeks to help cities and towns use blockchain for records and collecting sales taxes, said company founder Joseph Coyne. "It will primarily be an educational effort initially. It will shift into improving cybersecurity, and then we'll start exploring actual use cases," Coyne said. "Ultimately we think the real value will be in the collection and distribution of municipal revenues."

Coyne works from home on the Wyoming plains near the Nebraska and Colorado lines. He's no fan of

"some of the craziness we see in the cryptocurrency world right now," including the hype and speculation surrounding Bitcoin.

Neither is the founder of Something Something Blockchain, registered March 20, which despite its name has nothing to do with blockchain. Seattle-based tech consultant Evan Zlotnick said he set up the corporation to bill clients.

"I picked the name as a joke as I am pretty negative on blockchain and cryptocurrency. It seems like nothing but hype," Zlotnick wrote via LinkedIn messaging.

In Cheyenne, cheap electricity and cool weather would seem ideal for bitcoin mining, the complex computations on warehouses of servers that make the cryptocurrency work in exchange for a share of its value. The city is home to a small tech business park with a Microsoft data center and supercomputer dedicated to earth sciences.

But so far at least, bitcoin miners are setting up in Montana, not Wyoming.

And Cheyenne has a long way to go to catch up to the Rocky Mountain region's undisputed tech capital, Denver, where the economy is booming and construction cranes bristle the skyline.

A few bitcoin miners have asked about Wyoming's new blockchain laws, but nothing major has come of the legislation just yet, said Ron Gullberg, business development director for the Wyoming Business Council, the state's economic development agency.

"There could be opportunities for developers to come to Wyoming. So we're doing a lot of research and a lot networking and studying up on it," Gullberg said.

Still, optimism about blockchain abounds.

"The thing that I'm excited about is that Wyoming is willing to jump in and experiment, knowing full well we have a great deal of additional work to do," said Coyne. "That includes appropriate regulation."q

BUSINESS A25

Friday 25 May 2018

Stocks slide as Trump says North Korean meeting is canceled

By MARLEY JAY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are skidding Thursday after President Donald Trump said he is canceling a planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Energy companies are falling along with oil prices as investors respond to reports the nations of OPEC may start producing more oil. Car companies including Fiat Chrysler and Toyota are falling as the Trump administration considered tariffs on imported cars and car parts, a move the governments of China, Japan and the European Union condemned.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index dropped 18 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,714 as of 11:10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 219 points, or 0.9 percent, to 24,667. The Nasdaq composite shed 47 points, or 0.7 percent, to 7,378. The Russell 2000 index of smallercompany stocks slipped 6 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,620.

Technology companies took some of the worst losses. Microsoft fell 1.7 percent to $97 and Intel gave up 1.7 percent to $54.23.

Video game maker Electronic Arts slid 2.7 percent to $129.95 and Google's parent company, Alphabet, skidded 1.1 percent to $1,073.74.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 1 percent to $71.14 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 0.9 percent to $79.09 a barrel in London.

Various news outlets reported that the nations of the OPEC cartel might start producing more oil in response to reduced exports from Venezuela and Iran.

Greater supplies would send prices lower. Energy companies have slipped in recent days as investors anticipated that possibility.

On Thursday Exxon Mobil lost 2.3 percent to $82.06 and Chevron dipped 1.9 percent to $126.30.

OPEC and a group of other major oil producers cut production last year in re-

FILE- This Dec. 21, 2016, file photo shows the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stocks are lower Thursday, May 24, 2018.

Associated Press

sponse to a steep drop in oil prices. U.S. crude had fallen from more than $100 a barrel in mid-2014 to as little as $26 a barrel in early 2016. On Monday U.S. crude peaked at $72.24 a barrel, its highest price since late 2014.

NORTH KOREA: Stocks turned lower after the White House announced that the planned meeting between Trump and Kim was off. An open letter from Trump said he was canceling the June 12 summit because of "tremendous anger and open hostility" in a recent statement by a North Korean official. The two sides agreed in March after Trump and Kim traded public insults and threats for months.

BONDS: Bond prices rose.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.96 percent from 2.99 percent, and banks traded lower. Metals prices also increased. Gold gained 1.2 percent to $1,304.80 an ounce and silver jumped 1.4 percent to $16.64 an

ounce.

BRAKING NEWS: The Trump administration could place tariffs on imported vehicles and automotive parts. It plans to conduct an investigation into those imports on national security grounds.

The U.S. will decide by June 1 whether to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Europe on the same grounds. A European Union official said the proposal would violate World Trade Organization rules and Japan and China also criticized the proposal.

Fiat Chrysler lost 2.2 percent to $21.97 and Tata

Motors fell 5.6 percent to $21.14. Toyota shares fell 1.8 percent to $132.42. U.S. rivals Ford rose 1.3 percent to $11.59 and General Motors added 0.9 percent to $38.19.

DEUTSCHE BANK LAYOFFS: Germany's struggling Deutsche Bank said it is cutting more than 7,000 jobs as it reshapes its stock trading operation and refocuses its global investment banking business on its European base. The bank's stock fell 5.2 percent to $12.21.

EARNINGS: Best Buy had a stronger first quarter than analysts expected, but Wall

Street was disappointed with the retailer's profit forecasts for the current quarter and for the rest of the year.

The stock lost 7 percent to $70.64. Prescription drug distributor McKesson said difficult market conditions in Europe and Canada hurt its business in its latest quarter and it declined 2.4 percent to $143.26.

Spam maker Hormel posted a weaker-than-expected profit as it dealt with higher costs for freight and commodities. The stock shed 3.1 percent to $34.70.

Home furnishings company Williams-Sonoma surged after raising its annual forecasts following a strong first quarter. It gained 13 percent to $55.56.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 109.12 yen from 110.07 yen. The euro rose to $1.1728 from $1.1698.

OVERSEAS: Germany's DAX lost 0.6 percent and the FTSE 100 in Britain fell 0.4 percent. The CAC 40 in France shed 0.2 percent.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.1 percent and the Kospi in South Korea slipped 0.2 percent.q

A26 COMICS

Friday 25 May 2018

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Yesterday’s puzzle answer

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

CLASSIFIED A27

Friday 25 May 2018

Gut check: Swallowed capsule could spot trouble, send alert

This undated photo provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering in May 2018 shows a capsule packed with electronics and genetically engineered living cells in Cambridge, Mass.

Associated Press

By CARLA K. JOHNSON Associated Press Scientists have developed a swallowed capsule packed with tiny electronics and millions of genetically engineered living cells that might someday be used to spot health problems from inside the gut.

The capsule was tested in pigs and correctly detected signs of bleeding, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported Thursday in the journal Science . At more than an inch long, it will have to be made smaller for testing in people. But the results suggest the capsule could eventually be used in people to find signs of ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease or even colon cancer, the researchers said.

It's the latest advance in a growing field of sensors that can be swallowed or worn to monitor our health. Pills equipped with cameras, thermometers and acidity gauges already look for disease and track digestion. Last year, a psychiatric medication that alerts doctors when it's taken won U.S. approval. Stick-on skin monitors for recovering stroke patients are in the works.

The MIT device is the first to use engineered cells as sen-

sors in swallowed capsules, said Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, who is developing a gas-sensing, all-electronic pill at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.

"The work is yet another step toward showing the great promises of smart, ingestible capsules," said Kalantar-zadeh.

The researchers tested the capsules using a harmless strain of E. coli bacteria. The cells were modified with DNA from other bacteria to make them detect blood and then light up. Electronics then take over, relaying

signals to a smartphone.

Shrinking the capsule to a normal pill size could be achieved by combining its three electronic chips, said co-author Phillip Nadeau.

Data encryption will be needed to protect patient privacy. And it's meant to be used once, so they'll need to make it flushable, co-author Mark Mimee said.

All that, plus human testing, means a commercial product is years off.

As labs discover DNA with new sensing powers, the capsule could be customized to diagnose multiple

conditions. Co-author Tim Lu speculated that future patients could swallow a capsule "once a week or once a month" to screen for early signs of cancer instead of getting a colonoscopy.

The capsule could help doctors monitor tricky-toreach parts of the small intestine for people with Crohn's disease or to study the normal balance of microbes in the gut, said Dr. Stephanie Hansel of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who wasn't involved in the research.

"We're excited about it," said Hansel, while noting that it probably won't replace the need for procedures using flexible scopes.

Texas Instruments and the National Science Foundation helped pay for the research, and the researchers are seeking patents for the capsule. Mimee received a fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press Health & Science Department.q

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A28 SCIENCE

Friday 25 May 2018

Experts: 'Alarming' drought conditions hit US Southwest

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Rivers and watering holes are drying up, popular mountain recreation spots are closing and water restrictions are in full swing as a persistent drought intensifies its grip on pockets of the American Southwest.

Climatologists and other experts on Wednesday provided an update on the situation in the Four Corners region — where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet. They say the area is among the hardest hit and there's little relief expected, and even robust summer rains might not be enough to replenish the soil and ease the fire danger.

The region is dealing with exceptional drought — the worst category. That has left farmers, ranchers and water planners bracing for a much different situation than just a year ago when only a fraction of the region was experiencing low lev-

FILE - In this July 25, 2017, file photo, rafters float down the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. Rivers are drying up, popular mountain recreation spots are closing and water restrictions are in full swing as a persistent drought intensifies its grip on pockets of the American Southwest.

els of dryness.

Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center in Nebraska, said people are

become more aware and more concerned.

"We've been on this pattern where conditions have dried out, we haven't seen

much relief through last summer or into the winter months and here we are going into the summer of 2018 with over two-thirds

of the region already in drought," he said. "So that's alarming to say the least."

Portions of the four states are seeing near-record to record dryness. Fuchs explained that some spots have missed out over the last two years on more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of precipitation — which can add up to as much as a year's worth of rain under normal conditions.

Warmer-than-average temperatures haven't helped as the soil dries out and water demands increases.

With the region's resources strained, a top federal official has resumed pressure on states in the Southwest to wrap up long-delayed emergency plans for potential shortages on the Colorado River, which serves 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico.

"We face an overwhelming risk on the system, and the time for action is now," Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman said Tuesday. q

FDA warns teething medicines unsafe, wants them off shelves

Orajel is displayed for sale in a pharmacy in New York Wednesday, May 23, 2018.

By MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials warned

parents Wednesday about the dangers of teething remedies that contain a popular numbing ingredi-

ent and asked manufacturers to stop selling their products intended for babies and toddlers.

The Food and Drug Administration said that various gels and creams containing the drug benzocaine can cause rare but deadly side effects in children, especially those 2 years and younger.

The agency has been warning about the products for a decade but said reports of illnesses and deaths have continued. Now, it wants teething products off the market, noting there is little evidence they actually work.

"We urge parents, caregivers and retailers who sell them to heed our warnings and not use over-the-counter products containing benzocaine for teething pain," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, in a

statement.

One major manufacturer, Church and Dwight Co. Inc., said Wednesday it would discontinue its four Orajel teething brands, including Baby Orajel and Orajel Medicated Teething Swabs.

The FDA said it will take legal action against other companies that don't voluntarily comply as soon as possible.

Benzocaine is also used in popular over-the-counter products for toothaches and cold sores in adults, including Orajel and Anbesol and generic drugstore brands. Products for adults can remain on the market but the FDA wants companies to add new warnings. Church and Dwight will continue to sell its other Orajel products, the company said in a statement.

Benzocaine can cause

a rare blood condition linked to potentially deadly breathing problems. The pain-relieving ingredient can interfere with an oxygen-carrying protein in the blood. Symptoms include shortness of breath, headache and rapid heart rate.

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend teething creams because they usually wash out of the baby's mouth within minutes. Instead, the group recommends giving babies teething rings or simply massaging their gums to relieve pain. The FDA issued warnings about the teething products in 2006, 2011 and 2014, but it did not call for their removal from the market. Officials reviewed 119 cases of the blood disorder linked to benzocaine between 2009 and 2017, including four deaths, according to the FDA.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Friday 25 May 2018

Stoner comedy pioneer Tommy Chong still toking, joking at 80

By JOHN ROGERS Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Yeah man, Tommy Chong says he always knew he'd live to see the day marijuana legalization would be sweeping America.

He knew when he and partner Cheech Marin pioneered stoner comedy 50 years ago, a time when taunting the establishment with constant reminders that they didn't just play hippie potheads in the movies — they really were those guys — could have landed them in prison. He even knew in 2003 when Chong was imprisoned for nine months for conspiring to distribute handcrafted artisanal bongs the government declared drug paraphernalia.

"Oh yeah, I saw it coming," he says of cannabis being legal in some form in about two-thirds of his adopted country's 50 states.

"In fact, I kind of planned the whole thing out," he jokes. "Well, maybe I was a little premature with that bong thing. But other than that, I was pretty much right on point."

So much so that when the High Priest of Stoner Comedy turns 80 on Thursday — that's right, 80 — he expects his Chong's Choice brand of marijuana, available in legal dispensaries in several states, will be consumed in abundance at the parties his family is planning.

"Tommy likes to say he tests every single batch. Which obviously he does. And he really enjoys it," his son Paris Chong says with a laugh.

"For this one, make sure that whatever you have to eat around the house is healthy because you'll find yourself munching away like crazy," the elder Chong says as he holds up a jar packed with a dozen or so choice green buds.

"Oh, and we have chocolates too," he says, reaching for a package of candies that vaguely resemble Tootsie Rolls.

Not that he was ever a heavy pot user, Chong says, just a consistent connoisseur.

"When I was 17, a jazz mu-

Tommy Chong pose for a picture at his home Tuesday, May 15, 2018 in Los Angeles.

sician gave me a Lenny Bruce record and a joint at the same time, and it changed my life," he recalls. "I quit school I think a week later and went on the road and became a blues musician and eventually a comedian, and the rest, as they say, is history."

His group Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers was signed to Motown, and Chong cowrote the band's only hit, "Does Your Mama Know About Me," a smooth R&B tune that rose to No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968.

When no other hits followed, Motown dropped the group, and the Canadian-born Chong returned to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he ran a pair of strip clubs with his brother.

There he crossed paths with Richard Marin, a MexicanAmerican art student from Los Angeles eight years his

junior, who asked to join the house band. The pair began warming up audiences with stoner jokes, and a comedy team was born.

After some discussion of what to call themselves — Chong says "Richard and Tommy" and "Chong and Marin" were quickly rejected — they settled on Cheech (Marin's nickname) and Chong. By then, Motown had helped Chong obtain a green card, and the two headed to fame and fortune in Los Angeles.

On a recent early morning, Chong answers the door for a photo shoot at his longtime home in the hills overlooking L.A.'s wealthy Brentwood section, arriving in gray jeans, sandals and a black T-shirt advertising the name of a Colorado cannabis dispensary he recently visited. He offers to change into another shirt

for the photos before deciding to stick with the original.

"Don't want to ruin my image," he concludes with a smile.

As a photographer sets up, Chong polishes off a breakfast of oatmeal topped with sliced banana. In recent years, he's become a vegetarian, although he backslides.

"Especially if you put a plate of dim sum in front of me.

Of course, that's my cultural heritage."

Chong, whose father emigrated from China before World War II, mostly identifies culturally as Chinese, although he's equally proud of his Scotch, Irish and Native American ancestry from his mother's side. Married for more than 40 years to his wife, Shelby, he's a family man with six grown children, three grandchildren and a great-grand-

daughter.

More than just a stoner comedian, he's been a passionate marijuana advocate for decades. He used cannabis during a bout with prostate cancer 10 years ago and more recently during treatment and recovery from colorectal cancer.

He finds it ironic that if the U.S. government hadn't outlawed marijuana in the early 20th century, he and Marin might never have had a comedy career.

Before the pair's bitter 1980s breakup, Cheech and Chong dominated comedy for 15 years. They released five Grammy-nominated, best-selling albums between 1971 and 1976, winning the 1973 Grammy for "Los Cochinos." Turning to films, they wrote and starred in a half-dozen, beginning with 1978's "Up in Smoke."

After the breakup, they would try periodically to reunite. Those efforts generally ended in angry, insult-laden exchanges until 10 years ago when Paris Chong intervened.

Finding an email on his father's computer from Marin asking if he wanted to try again to put aside differences, the son didn't bother to tell the father. He simply wrote yes and hit reply.

"And then I told my dad, and they were really happy," he recalls, chuckling.

"Sometimes you've just got to get out of your own way."

"There's a bond now that will always be there no matter what happens," says Chong, who in casual conversation sounds little like his stoner-dude alterego.

And "yeah," he says, answering the obvious question, "we still toke up."q

A30 PEOPLE

Friday 25 May 2018

& ARTS

When Def Leppard and Journey tour together, expect the hits

By MARK KENNEDY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Def Leppard and Journey have hit the road together for a 60show tour, but they promise there won't be any squabbles over which band headlines each night.

"If it's 60 shows, it's 30 each.

Simple as that," says Joe Elliott, lead singer of Def Leppard. "You know, it's pretty logical the way it's going to work."

The two bands will take turns closing out shows in 58 cities, including concerts at iconic venues such as Boston's Fenway Park, Chicago's Wrigley Field, The Forum in Los Angeles and New York's Madison Square Garden, an arena where Def Leppard will play its first-ever full concert.

It will be the second time the two bands have toured together. Def Leppard and Journey first teamed up in 2006, and both bands remember those days.

Neal Schon, a founding member and lead guitarist of Journey, says it was a "nobrainer" to get the bands together. "Musically I think that we match up amaz-

In this Jan. 23, 2018 photo, Journey lead guitarist Neal Schon, left, and Def Leppard singer Joe Elliot appear in New York to promote their 60-show tour this summer.

ingly well." Elliott agrees: "It was such a great tour, and

I don't think either of us has ever forgotten how brilliant it was."

While both bands have continued to make new music, expect the tour to focus on the hits. Def Leppard won't leave the stage without "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Rock of Ages."

Journey won't take its bow without offering "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Who's Crying Now." "It's not a curse to have a hit," says Elliott. "I want to do our hits. I want to do 'Sugar' and 'Photograph' and 'Rock of Ages.' They are the songs that have put us in stadiums. So why would you abandon them now?"

Both bands — representing the United States and the United Kingdom in a transAtlantic rock hug — have weathered line-up changes and the massive shifts in the music industry since the 1970s, riding the wave from vinyl to MP3s, surviving Napster, the rise and decline of MTV, and now fully enjoying the pop-culture embrace of all things from the 1980s.

"We used to tour to promote a record and now I think we put a record out to promote tour. You know, it's wild," says Elliott. "We survived basically because the audience stuck with us."

Def Leppard is touring fresh from becoming one of the last multi-platinum selling acts to have its music made available on streaming and download sites.

In January, Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and other digital music platforms made the band's catalog available — and it immediately charted in America and the U.K. What took so long?

"Our record deal lapsed in 2009 and we weren't in any great rush to do it because, at the time, we weren't really sure if this is just a fad," says Elliott. "We, as a band, wanted then to go through the entire catalog and master everything properly for streaming and download, which had never been done."

While both bands are enjoying renewed attention

to its music via the internet, Elliott and Schon remain wary of what both call "the Wild West," a place where they say their songs are streamed a trillion times and they get just $50.

"With the internet, that's proof in itself that it doesn't sell tickets. What sells tickets is longevity and that you've been persistent, and you go every year," says Schon.

"You go away too long, they're going to forget about you. Someone's going to take your place."

Both men are quick to dismiss the notion that rock is dead (Elliott points to the Foo Fighters, who are "just killing it in stadiums worldwide"). But they do worry about younger bands following in their footsteps.

"It is odd that bands that have been around for 30, 40 years or whatever can tour together and we can still do really well. And we do much better than the newer bands coming up," says Elliott.

"I've yet to see a band break through from where we started and go the same route we did and maintain it. Will we be talking about Greta Van Fleet and The Strokes in the year 2060? I really hope so but that's something to be proven down the road."

Speaking of the road, they're still discussing the possibility of a Def LeppardJourney onstage jam session, with members of both bands belting out a song or two together. They even joke they may write a new one.

Possible title? "'Don't Stop Pouring Sugar,'" Elliott says.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A31

Friday 25 May 2018

Argentines use murals to search for missing children

By ALMUDENA CALATRAVA Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Daiana Garnica's sparkling eyes catch the attention of many passersby in Argentina's capital, where her face is painted on a wall in a plea for help to find the teenager who disappeared one year ago.

Garnica's image is one of five paintings of missing young people put on walls across Buenos Aires in a bid to raise awareness about their disappearances.

The initiative, which is led by the private group Missing Children Argentina under the #ParedesQueBuscan, or #WallsThatSearch, slogan, is supported by a growing number of urban artists who hope their work helps the search become more visible.

"I wanted to communicate the gaze, which is the strongest, so that the image has an impact," artist Sebastian Richeri told The Associated Press. "So you stop and stare at it, instead of looking at it like just another face."

A bright orange neon light surrounds the teenager's

A man walks by a mural of Daiana Garnic, a 17-year-old girl who has been missing since last year, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, May 15, 2018.

smiling face, which is painted in black and white and tones of grey that contrast with a colorful background resembling a galaxy. Garnica's portrait is on the exterior wall of a bus terminal in the Villa Crespo neighborhood, where urban art is often displayed in murals.

Richeri, who signs his work "Chispart," a nickname that combines "spark" in Spanish

and "art," based the painting on one of the photographs the family has used in the search for Garnica, who went missing at age 17.

She was last seen on May 6, 2017, when she went out shopping with Dario Suarez, a neighbor in her small community in the northern Argentine province of Tucuman. Suarez is the

only person arrested in the case so far. He is accused of playing a role in her disappearance.

Authorities have offered a reward of about $6,000 for information leading to Garnica's whereabouts.

"Tucuman doesn't have enough means to look for missing people," Daiana's sister, Sonia Garnica, told the AP. "Nothing that the

(authorities) have said has been satisfactory."

She suspects that her sister, a cheerful teenager who was close to her family, was delivered to a prostitution ring. But she remains hopeful.

"I think this (mural project) that spreads her image is going to help speak to the public conscience, and reinforce the fact that there's a family waiting for her," she said. "If they think like a father, a mother, a family member, it will move them to speak out."

The national registry of missing minors says 1,154 are still missing out of the 2,571 cases reported last year nationwide. Most are between the ages of 13 and 17, and girls predominate among the missing. The campaign was launched

by Missing Children and the advertising agency DDB Argentina. All the images share the same deep gaze in the eyes. In a corner of each mural, the artist has painted the name and age of the missing youngster, and a telephone number to call in case anyone has information.q

In 'Ibiza' a summer comedy, streaming at home

By JAKE COYLE Associated Press So long a staple of the moviegoing experience, the summer comedy has fallen on hard times. There are hardly any on this season's release schedule, and one of the more promising candidates — "Ibiza," starring the terrific Gillian Jacobs and the former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Vanessa Bayer — isn't playing in theaters but is streaming on Netflix.

In most ways, "Ibiza" doesn't differ greatly from the latearriving post-"Bridesmaids" ilk of raunchy female-led road trip comedies. Jacobs ("Love," ''Community") plays an angst-ridden, single New Yorker named Harper whose intensely cruel, ger-

maphobe boss (the excellent Michaela Watkins) dispatches her to Barcelona on a business trip to land a Sangria client for their public relations company.

Harper's two best friends, Nikki (Bayer) and Leah (Phoebe Robinson of "2 Dope Queens") insist on coming along. When the normally reticent Harper pursues a DJ love interest (Richard Madden, a.k.a.

Robb Stark on "Game of Thrones"), their European trip takes an impromptu detour to Spain's nightclub destination.

The outline of "Ibiza" isn't promising. A movie geared around a hot Ibiza DJ sounds like a straight-tovideo Zac Efron movie.

And finding true love in the

EDM-blaring clubs of Ibiza is probably about as likely as discovering the meaning of life on spring break at Lake Havasu.

But "Ibiza," scripted by Lauryn Kahn and directed by Alex Richanbach (both Funny Or Die veterans and disciples of "Ibiza" producer Adam McKay and Will Ferrell) has a loose, natural rhythm that easily surpasses its cliche framework.

And unlike some of its forerunners, "Ibiza" doesn't feel like it's stretching to stitch together a few memorable set pieces.

It works best when the three are just in a hotel room or the back seat of a cab because the chemistry between the trio is earnestly winning.

This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Vanessa Bayer, Phoebe Robinson and Gillian Jacobs in a scene from "Ibiza."

Jacobs has by now become an expert in sarcastic, wounded, resilient characters, and she holds "Ibiza" together just as surely as she does an episode of "Love," also a Netflix title.

As ludicrous as it sounds, her budding romance with Madden's famous DJ comes across as quite genuine; they believably fall in love at first sight, brought together by that evergreen valentine: a crude draw-

ing unknowingly stenciled across Harper's face.

And while the genial Robinson is also a key part of the group, "Ibiza" most belongs to Bayer. In her largest movie role yet, the former "SNL"er (she departed last year after seven seasons) plays the Melissa McCarthy-esque role of hapless sidekick, but with a more subtle and shy comic energy to her physical comedy. q

A32 FEATURE

Friday 25 May 2018

Then and now: France's World War I battle-scape

By LAURENT REBOURS Associated Press PARIS (AP) — U.S. troops fighting in France in World War I found a landscape ravaged by trench warfare and chemical weapons, churches gutted by bombs and used as makeshift hospitals, and villages turned into military prisons.

A century later, those same verdant fields, rebuilt churches and quaint villages greet American tourists and other world travelers, showing barely a trace of what they endured.

The Associated Press has revisited sites across the former Western Front as the U.S. commemorates fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, and Europe prepares to mark 100 years since the war's end. The AP looked afresh at scenes from 1918 in the Ardennes, Somme, Argonne and Meuse regions, captured in images held in the archives of the U.S. National World War I Museum and Memorial.

The Americans arrived late in the war, in 1917, and gave crucial help to Britain, France and other allies fighting Germany.

The wartime gloom lifted briefly when U.S. troops marched in a Fourth of July parade in the summer of 1918, through a Paris whose historic buildings and cobblestone streets stand little changed 100 years later.

To the north and the east,

This combo of two photographs shows; at left, Estella Margaret Kendall at the grave of her son, Harry N. Kendall, in 1931 and at right, a view of the same location 100 years later on March 25, 2018.

allied troops were struggling to push back the front line, which had nearly reached the French capital.

Near Verdun, U.S. soldiers ran through the main street of Exermont trying to escape German fire, as a comrade-in-arms lay mo-

tionless nearby. Today, children ride a toy tractor past the same spot.

In a war that claimed some 14 million lives — 5 million civilians and 9 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 28 countries over four years — and left 21 million wounded, the town church

This photo dated March 25, 2018, shows an inside view of a church in Neuvilly-enArgonne, eastern France.

in nearby Neuvilly-en-Argonne became a field hospital for U.S. troops.

Bombed out and full of rubble, it was still the sturdiest building in town.

Patients lay on the floor in rows, exactly as the reconstructed pews now stand today.

Just a week before the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice that ended the war, hundreds of American supply trucks rumbled through a muddy street in Beauclair.

Today cars ride along its asphalt, past a monument to villagers lost in what's known in France as the "Guerre du 14-18," or "the War of 1914-1918."

Every village here has such a monument, the names of the dead etched in memoriam.

American military engineers crisscrossed northern France to rebuild bridges, roads and other essential infrastructure, some of which still stands.

Some details are gone, however. The well where German prisoners drew water in Pierrefitte-sur-Aire, watched over by an American soldier, is now covered in pavement.

On the day of the armistice, American soldiers celebrated victory with war-weary villagers in Stenay. Today, children run carefree up the church steps where the revelers stood.

Of the 2 million Americans who took part in World War I, 116,516 died and about 200,000 others were injured.

Many of the dead rest at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.

It is the largest U.S. cemetery in Europe to this day.q

This photo provided by National World War I Museum and Memorial dated July 4, 1918 shows American troops in a Fourth of July parade in Paris, France.