Sub-title: Trend "has flipped" says researcher

 Picture:

 It used to be that the kids out in the bushes smoking marijuana were the trouble makers, but new research shows that this group academically outperforms their peers who smoke both marijuana and tobacco.

 In one of the largest, long-term studies of substance co-use among teens, Dalla Lana School of Public Health researchers examined trends of tobacco and marijuana use from 1981 to 2011 and found that marijuana smokers receive higher grades than those who smoke both substances.

 “In the past, cannabis use was associated with more problematic behaviours, but this trend has flipped,” said Michael Chaiton, assistant professor in epidemiology and public health policy at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

 “Youth tobacco users are likely to have poor academic performance and engage in socially deviant behaviours, like vandalism, theft or assault.”

 The study, published in the Journal of School Health’s March issue, analyzed self-report survey data from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, including a total of 38,331 students in grades 7, 9 and 11. A user and/or co-user are deﬁned as someone reporting daily tobacco and/or marijuana use in the past month. Poor academic performance, which is linked to increased risk of tobacco, marijuana and a variety of other risky behaviours, was measured as an indicator of problem behaviour to see if it was related to substance use or co-use.

 Marijuana use peaked about a decade ago, but overall attitudes towards the drug have become more normalized, so many teens see it as safer than tobacco, although this is not inherently true, researchers say. Smoking rates have declined by about six per cent among school-aged youth in the last decade, but researchers believe smoking cigarettes has become a new signal of social deviation in this group.

 “Youth smokers are becoming a more vulnerable population with high levels of substance use and mental health comorbidities,” said Chaiton, who is also a scientist at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit.

 Other interesting study insights include:

 92 per cent of teen cigarette smokers also use marijuana;

 25 per cent of teen marijuana users also smoke cigarettes;

 In 1999, co-use was at an all-time high at 12 per cent, with boys in lower grades most likely to be a part of this group;

 Students with lower academic performance were more likely to be co-users than users of either substance alone;

 There’s a growing “straight edge” cohort, with 90 per cent of Ontario students not using either substance.

 “Drug prevention programs should be aligned with student realities, which means acknowledging and addressing patterns of co-use,” said Maritt Kirst, co-author of the study and assistant professor in social and behavioural health sciences at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

 “This study identifies which youth are most at risk and can help public health professionals tailor prevention programs accordingly.”

 Study authors also suggest that marijuana prevention programs may take a renewed focus on the drug’s harmful effects instead of underscoring the drug’s illegal status – the traditional approach of such programs.

 Nicole Bodnar is a writer with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. |||||

 Andrea Janus, CTVNews.ca

 Students who only smoke marijuana do better at school than classmates who smoke just tobacco, or who smoke both tobacco and pot, says a new study, which tracked substance use among teens over 30 years.

 Researchers from the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health analyzed data from a survey administered to nearly 39,000 Ontario students between 1981 and 2011. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health asked students in Grades 7, 9 and 11 about their tobacco and marijuana use, and their academic performance.

 The study found that marijuana-only users did better at school than their counterparts who smoked only cigarettes or who smoked both cigarettes and marijuana. However, the findings reflect the fact that fewer students smoke tobacco today compared to 30 years ago, and those that do make up a very “marginalized, vulnerable” population, says lead study author Michael Chaiton, assistant professor in epidemiology and public health policy.

 About 92 per cent of tobacco users also use marijuana, the study found. However, only 25 per cent of marijuana uses also smoke tobacco.

 “It’s better relatively,” Chaiton says of marijuana-only users’ academic performance.

 Marijuana users don’t outperform non-users, Chaiton says.

 “Now there is a distinction between marijuana use and co-use with other substances, and it’s an indication of the changing social norms. So it’s not an absolute that they do better; it’s that social norms have changed and the population of people who use marijuana are more like the general population.”

 The study was published in the March edition of the Journal of School Health.

 In the 1980s, when the study began, there was less marijuana use among students. And those who did smoke pot also smoked tobacco. At the time, pot use among tobacco smokers was very low.

 Thirty years later, that had switched, the researchers found. As tobacco use declined, marijuana use shot up. And among the remaining tobacco users, marijuana use is now very high.

 One reason for the statistical switch, Chaiton says, is the effectiveness of anti-tobacco messaging in recent years.

 “The population of youth smokers right now is one that is a fairly marginalized population, quite a vulnerable population, so they are at high rates of cannabis use but also of other drugs and other behaviours,” Chaiton says. “So the change in trends is that this is a social phenomenon. This is not that tobacco is causing this, it is something that has changed socially in the role of tobacco in society.”

 Now that marijuana smoking has become more of a social norm, Chaiton says, programs aimed at keeping youth from risky behaviours such as drug abuse must take into account two factors: that more students now smoke marijuana compared to 30 years ago, and that students who smoke tobacco are more likely to use marijuana or other drugs and engage in at-risk behaviours such as vandalism and theft.

 As marijuana use becomes more prevalent and socially acceptable, Chaiton says, the focus must turn to developing programs for youth that properly educate them on the risks.

 Tobacco and marijuana are “similar drugs in many different ways,” Chaiton notes, and “people dramatically underestimate the risks associated with cannabis use, particularly among youth.”

 “I would argue that we need to start talking about them in the same way and start addressing them in the same types of interventions,” he says, particularly given the growing public discussions about decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana.

 “If we do legalize or change the regulations in dramatic ways, that does change the social environment again and that can, as we’ve seen a number of times, cause big shifts in youth and we could see another big shift in marijuana use among youth.”

Summary: – A little more ammo for the pro-marijuana crowd: A major study out of Canada finds that students who smoke pot do better in school than those who smoke tobacco or indulge in both, reports CTV. But, no, it's not about marijuana making kids smarter. In fact, kids who abstain from smoking of any kind do best of all. Chalk it up instead to the growing acceptance of pot. "It’s an indication of the changing social norms," says the lead author of the study from the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health. "So it’s not an absolute that they do better; it’s that social norms have changed, and the population of people who use marijuana are more like the general population.” The study looked at data over the last 30 years and compared kids in grades 7, 9, and 11 in 1981 with their counterparts in 2011. As the U of T News puts it, "it used to be that the kids out in the bushes smoking marijuana were the trouble makers," but the trend seems to have reversed itself. Now the kids smoking tobacco exclusively are the "marginalized" ones. The study found that 92% of students who smoke cigarettes also smoke pot, but only 25% of pot smokers also smoke tobacco. The biggest group was the 90% who reported smoking neither, and researchers say that's the way to go. "People dramatically underestimate the risks associated with cannabis use, particularly among youth," says the UT scientist.


SOCHI, Russia -- He came to these Olympics determined to stay his chilled-out, snowboarding self at the pressure-packed Winter Games and, in his own words, continue to “march to his own beat.”

 With that attitude and special flair, 20-year-old Sage Kotsenburg of Park City, Utah, marched off with the first gold medal of the 2014 Sochi Olympics in men’s slopestyle on Saturday at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

 This marked the Olympic debut of one of the livelier extreme sports and Kotsenburg won it with an eye-popping first run in the final, earning 93.50 points. Taking the silver was Staale Sandbech of Norway and Mark McMorris of Canada grabbed the bronze medal.

 McMorris, the gold-medal favorite before he broke a rib at the X Games in late January, put up a brave showing with his painful injury. He reached the final by virtue of pulling out all the stops with his second run in the semifinal, and scored 88.75 in his second run in the final.

 This event had been in the spotlight because snowboarding icon Shaun White pulled out on Wednesday, a day before the start of competition, citing the potential risk of injury. One of the other medal favorites, from Norway, had to pull out because of a broken collarbone sustained in a training run.

 White's withdrawal left Kotsenburg, Chas Guldemond and Ryan Stassel as the remaining medal hopes for the United States. But Kotsenburg was the only one of the three to make it out of the semifinals.

 Kotsenburg said after the semifinals that his parents were back home watching, too nervous to come to Russia. But he planned on calling them between sessions.

 Kotsenburg chatted away with reporters in the mixed zone after the semifinals, oblivious to any pressure. Stress apparently is not in his DNA.

 “I really want to medal just as much as the next guy, but my attitude in the run, if I land, that’s cool,” he said. “If not, I need to try harder obviously. That’s just how I snowboard.

 “I’m super mellow, laid-back. I’m not like the normal guy that goes in the gym and trains. I haven’t been in the gym since September."

 ALSO:

 U.S. men's bobsled team wants to be slide ruler in Sochi

 Speedskater Shani Davis and teammates expect big things

 Freestyle skier Maggie Voisin withdraws after injuring her ankle

 lisa.dillman@latimes.com

 Twitter: @reallisa ||||| Sage Kotsenburg (USA) celebrates after winning gold in men's slopestyle finals at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. (Photo: Nathan Bilow, USA TODAY Sports) Story Highlights Sage Kotsenburg won the slopestyle competition, giving the United States its first Sochi gold medal

 Kotsenburg beat out favorite Mark McMorris, who finished with bronze

 Norway's Staale Sandbech earned silver

 KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia – American Sage Kotsenburg won the first gold medal of the Olympics on Saturday in men's slopestyle snowboarding, and he did it by trying a trick he had never done before.

 It was a spur-of-the-moment decision by an underdog snowboarder, overshadowed on his own team by superstar Shaun White, who had pulled out of the slopestyle competition earlier this week.

 As Kotsenburg, who earned his spot in the finals by placing second in the semifinals earlier Saturday, prepared for his run, he called his older brother, Blaze, who was at home in Park City, and U.S. coach Bill Enos to share a crazy idea.

 He wanted to throw a trick called "Back 16 Japan" on his first run in the Olympic finals, never mind that he hadn't tried the move in practice or prior competition. No one talked him out of it.

 "I ended up landing it, and winning with it," Kotsenburg said, laughing. The trick is four and a half backwards spins (1620 degrees of rotation), while grabbing the backside of his board (Japan).

 Kotsenburg, the third rider in the 12-man final, received a score of 93.50 on that first run, and that score held up through the nine competitors that followed him, and through all of the second run.

 BRENNAN: Torch bearer must apologize

 MEDAL PROJECTIONS: Picking winners in every event

 Canadian Mark McMorris cleanly landed a pair of triples in his second run and received a score of 88.75, stunning both McMorris and the large Canadian contingent who had traveled to Rosa Khutor to watch him and his two countryman. Norway's Staale Sandbech, the second-to-last competitor, knocked Morris from silver to bronze with a score of 91.75.

 "I would have loved to be in the gold medal position, but to have been through what I've been through the last two weeks, to be standing on the podium in general feels like a gold medal to me," said McMorris, who suffered a broken rib at the X Games last month and failed to earn one of the automatic spots in the final out of qualifying Thursday. "I wanted to go big, land clean, hit technical tricks and, yeah, you've got to be happy with how you rode, and it's up to them to make the decisions."

 Thus controversy will mark slopestyle's debut at the Games.

 McMorris said he believed when he finished his second run that he should have scored in the 90s, and that he had given a performance that should have been good enough for gold or silver.

 It wasn't a slight at Kotsenburg, whom McMorris and other Canadians praised, but an indictment of what riders say is a confusing judging process.

 "I just don't know what the judges wanted to see on the course today," said Canadian Max Parrot, who finished fifth with a score of 87.25.

 Kotsenburg did not attempt a triple jump, and won with a run that emphasized creativity, style and a technical combination of spins and grabs, including his own creation named the Holy Crail, which he used twice in his winning run.

 "It's pretty sick to see that some weird, creative stuff got rewarded," Kotsenburg said.

 Indeed the judges and competitors alike seemed to notice and appreciate his array of unique moves.

 "He got his own personal style, and I'm happy that he showed that to the whole world. I think his style is pretty rad," Parrot said.

 Kotsenburg was the only American in the final, after two teammates failed to advance out of Saturday's semifinal, and White withdrew 48 hours before qualifying began. White, who will compete in the halfpipe next week, didn't have a triple jump in his arsenal of slopestyle tricks, but Kotsenburg didn't need one to win.

 And now snowboarding has a new American star – a 20-year-old Utahan with scruffy long hair and a vocabulary full of snowboarding lingo.

 Mike Jankowski, the U.S. team's head coach for halfpipe and slopestyle, said Kotsenburg is the purest type of snowboarder, who approaches every run in practice and competition as a chance to have fun and be creative.

 Together they ate a small lunch between the semifinals and finals, concluding the meal by deciding to "go snowboarding." It's the type of conversation they could have had on any mountain on any day – it just happened to be on the biggest stage in slopestyle history.

 "He's the best ambassador you could have for snowboarding right now," Jankowski said. "He's showing the true love of the sport."

 PHOTOS: Best of slopestyle action

Summary: – The first gold medal for the US—in fact, the first gold medal of the Sochi Games, period—is in the books, courtesy of the self-described "super mellow" Sage Kotsenburg of Park City, Utah. The 20-year-old won the not-so-mellow slopestyle snowboarding competition, reports the LA Times. Not familiar? It's the event that Shaun White pulled out of because it's too dangerous, that medal favorite Mark McMorris competed in despite breaking a rib at the X Games last month (he won bronze today), and that another favorite from Norway missed because he broke his collarbone in a training run. So how did Kotsenburg win? With a trick he had never tried before, of course, not even in practice. USA Today describes it as "four and a half backwards spins (1620 degrees of rotation), while grabbing the backside of his board." Prior to the race, Kotsenburg said pressure wasn't his thing. “I really want to medal just as much as the next guy, but my attitude in the run, if I land, that’s cool,” he said. (Click to read about the ring glitch during the opening ceremony.)


Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 / Updated By Cassandra Vinograd

 The seaside French city of Cannes has banned burkinis, full-body swimsuits worn by some Muslim women, from its beaches.

 Cannes — home of an annual star-studded annual film festival — is located not far from Nice, where more than 80 people died in a July terror attack on the city's beachfront promenade.

 A Muslim woman wears a "burkini" on a beach in Sydney. TIM WIMBORNE / Reuters file

 Mayor David Lisnard cited that tragedy and subsequent attack on a northwest France church in an ordinance forbidding swimwear that doesn't respect "good morals and secularism."

 "Beachwear manifesting religious affiliation in an ostentatious way, while France and its religious sites are currently the target of terrorist attacks, could create the risk of disturbances to public order," the ruling says.

 A spokeswoman for his office confirmed that the ordinance — in effect through the month of August, peak tourist season on the French Riviera — applies to burkinis. Violators face a fine.

 French soldiers patrol the Promenade in Cannes on Aug. 5. Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

 Security has been stepped up across France in wake of the Nice attack, with soldiers prominently patrolling the beaches and promenades of the Riviera.

 The ordinance was issued on July 28 but only publicized on Friday.

 Lisnard told the Nice Matin newspaper that the ban was designed to "protect the population" in the context of France's ongoing state of emergency and terror threat.

 When asked if he thought the ordinance would send a negative message to the numerous Muslim tourists in Cannes, Lisnard replied: "Not at all."

 Religious groups vehemently disagreed, with France's Muslim Federation of the South calling it an "illegal" and "abusive" use of power with the unique purpose of stigmatization and exclusion.

 "The federation ... is absolutely scandalized," it said in a statement.

 France's approach to religious attire has long stoked controversy: The country in 2010 passed a law that bans the burqa, an Islamic veil that completely covers women's faces and bodies. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption Women wearing burkinis will be invited to change into a more "respectful" costume

 The mayor of Cannes in southern France has banned full-body swimsuits known as "burkinis" from the beach, citing public order concerns.

 David Lisnard said they are a "symbol of Islamic extremism" and might spark scuffles, as France is the target of Islamist attacks.

 France is on high alert following a series of incidents including July's truck attack in nearby Nice.

 Anyone caught flouting the new rule could face a fine of €38 (£33).

 They will first be asked to change into another swimming costume or leave the beach.

 Nobody has been apprehended for wearing a burkini in Cannes since the edict came into force at the end of July.

 What do Muslim women think of the ban?

 This is not the first time that women's clothing has been restricted in France. In 2011 it became the first country in Europe to ban the full-face Islamic veil, known as the burka, as well as the partial face covering, the niqab.

 Earlier this week a private waterpark near Marseille cancelled a burkini-only day after being subjected to criticism.

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The authorities will need to distinguish between swimmers in burkinis and wetsuits

 The ruling

 "Access to beaches and for swimming is banned to any person wearing improper clothes that are not respectful of good morals and secularism.

 "Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are currently the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order."

 The reaction in the French press

 The French media has questioned the legality of the ban. Le Monde points out that no French law bans the wearing of full-body swimsuits. "The law on the full-face veil only bans covering the face in public... The burkini, which covers the body but does not hide the face, is thus a totally legal garment."

 France TV Info's legal blog, Judge Marie, says the risk of disturbing public order, invoked by the Cannes mayor, seems rather tenuous. "The basic freedom to come and go dressed as you please seems to me to be infringed in a way that is disproportionate to this risk," the blog says.

 Meanwhile, a commentary in left-of-centre paper Liberation accuses the Cannes mayor of trying to score a political point: "David Lisnard… is not responding to a specific issue, but is sending a radical message to his constituents, to his electorate."

 BBC Monitoring

 Mr Lisnard confirmed to local media that other religious symbols such as the kippah (Jewish skullcap) and the cross would still be permitted, and the ban would not apply to the veil that some Muslim women wear over their hair.

 He said: "I simply forbid a uniform that is the symbol of Islamic extremism.

 "We live in a common public space, there are rules to follow. "

 The League of Human Rights (LDH) said it would challenge the ban in court.

 "It is time for politicians in this region to calm their discriminatory ardour and defend the spirit of the Republic," local LDH leader Herve Lavisse said.

 The Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) is also expected to mount a legal challenge against the decision. Its lawyer Sefen Guez Guez called the ban "illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional".

Summary: – Many would consider a full-body swimsuit less offensive than a skimpy bikini. Not the mayor of Cannes, apparently. David Lisnard says "burkinis"—modest swimwear worn by some Muslim women—are a "symbol of Islamic extremism" and aren't allowed on the French city's beaches. Should a woman be spotted wearing one, she'll be asked to change into something else or leave, David Lisnard tells the BBC. Offenders of the city's new rule—in effect since July 28, reports NBC News—may also face a $42 fine. French law bans people from wearing the burka and niqab in public, but there's no nationwide ban on burkinis. "Access to beaches and for swimming is banned to any person wearing improper clothes that are not respectful of good morals and secularism," says Lisnard. "Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are currently the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order." However, Lisnard says the Jewish kippah and Christian cross will still be allowed on beaches. A rep for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France calls the ban "illegal, discriminatory, and unconstitutional," while the League of Human Rights says it will take its opposition to court.


Former first lady Michelle Obama, hugs Bruktawit Tesfaye, 11, a 5th grade student from Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, who introduced Obama at the Partnership for a Healthier American... (Associated Press)

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama on Friday criticized a Trump administration decision to delay federal rules aimed at making school lunch healthier, saying kids will end up "eating crap" instead.

 Mrs. Obama told a health conference in Washington that more nutritionally sound school meals are needed since millions of kids nationwide eat federally subsidized breakfast and lunch at school. Without mentioning President Donald Trump by name, she urged parents to think about the government's recent decision and to "look at motives."

 "You have to stop and think, 'Why don't you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you and why is that a partisan issue?" Mrs. Obama said. "Why would that be political?"

 "Moms, think about this. I don't care what state you live in, take me out of the equation, like me, don't like me, but think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap," she said.

 During a nearly hourlong conversation led by Sam Kass, the Obamas' personal chef during their White House years and executive director of the anti-childhood obesity initiative she spearheaded as first lady, Mrs. Obama also spoke briefly about her future plans. Her family's last day in the White House was Jan. 20, and she said she and former President Barack Obama would spend the year figuring out what comes next.

 In one of his first major acts, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced on May 1 that the department will delay an upcoming requirement to reduce the amount of sodium in school meals. Purdue said he also planned to keep issuing waivers to a regulation requiring that more whole grains also be served. Schools could also serve 1 percent flavored-milk instead of the nonfat variety now required.

 The school meal changes reflect suggestions from the School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition directors and companies that sell food to schools. The group often battled with the Obama administration, which phased in the healthier school meal rules starting in 2012.

 The move partially rolls back rules the former first lady supported as part of her "Let's Move" anti-childhood obesity initiative, but leaves most of the Obama administration's school meal rules in place. Those rules include requirements that students must take fruits and vegetables on the lunch line. Some schools have asked for changes to that policy, saying students often throw those items into the trash.

 "If kids aren't eating the food, and it's ending up in the trash, they aren't getting any nutrition — thus undermining the intent of the program," Perdue said in making the announcement at a school in Leesburg, Virginia.

 But Mrs. Obama said it's time for adults to take charge and not put kids in charge.

 "How about we stop asking kids how they feel about their food because kids, my kids included, if they could eat pizza and french fries every day with ice cream on top and a soda they would think they were happy, until they get sick," she said.

 "That to me is one of the most ridiculous things we talk about in this movement," the former first lady continued. "You know what? Kids don't like math either. What are we going to do? Stop teaching math?"

 Her appearance at the annual conference, sponsored by the Partnership for a Healthier America, a nonprofit organization that was created to support her anti-childhood obesity work, was Mrs. Obama's second major public outing since leaving the White House. Last month in Orlando, Florida, she participated in a question-and-answer session during the American Institute of Architects' annual conference.

 The Obamas have started to re-emerge into the public arena after laying low and cooling their heels on vacations since leaving the White House. Mrs. Obama said she and her husband are busy settling into their new home and offices in Washington and making sure daughters Malia and Sasha are doing well. They also have books to write and money to raise for the presidential center they plan to build on the South Side of her native Chicago.

 "We're not gone. We're just breathing," Mrs. Obama said.

 ___

 Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap ||||| Speaking at a conference in the nation's capital, Michelle Obama harshly criticized the Trump administration for delaying federal rules intended to improve school lunches. Obama promoted healthy eating and lifestyle while first lady. (Published Friday, May 12, 2017)

 Former first lady Michelle Obama took aim at a Trump administration decision to delay federal rules aimed at making school lunches healthier.

 Speaking at an annual health conference in Washington, D.C., Obama said more nutritious school lunches are important since millions of kids eat federally subsidized school breakfast and lunch. Without mentioning President Donald Trump, she said parents should stop and "think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap."

 "If we want to make this country great, our kids need to be healthy," Obama said. "Not some, but all.”

 In one of his first major actions, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the department will delay an upcoming requirement to reduce the amount of sodium in school meals.

 Michelle Obama Sits Down With Oprah Winfrey

 Michelle Obama, who spoke with Oprah Winfrey in an interview that aired on CBS on Monday night, says the White House needs a "grown-up," and that the nation will come to appreciate President Barack Obama. (Published Friday, Dec. 23, 2016)

 Purdue said he'll also keep issuing waivers to a regulation requiring that more whole grains be served at schools.

 "You want to talk about nanny state and government intervention, well, 'you just buy the food and be quiet and you don't need to know what is in it,'" Obama said. "That is essentially what a move like this is saying to you moms."

 Obama said if Americans want to make the country great again, children in the United States need to be healthy.

 "It's not politics, it's parenting," Obama said.

 As first lady, Obama led a nationwide effort to reduce childhood obesity with her "Let's Move" initiative. She vowed to continue fighting for a healthier America.

 "You've got me as a partner for as long as I can be of use," she added.

 President Bill Clinton, supermodel Cindy Crawford, actress Gabrielle Union and celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito also spoke at the annual event.

 Copyright Associated Press / NBC Chicago ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Michelle Obama was addressing the Healthier America summit in Washington

 Michelle Obama has launched a fierce defence of the healthy eating initiatives she championed as first lady.

 At a public health summit in Washington, she hit back after the Trump administration loosened nutritional standards aimed at making US school lunches healthier.

 "Think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap," she said.

 One in five American children is obese, government figures show.

 In thinly-veiled criticism of the policies of the new administration, Mrs Obama told the audience: "This is where you really have to look at motives, you know.

 "You have to stop and think, why don't you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you? And why is that a partisan issue? Why would that be political? What is going on?"

 She added: "Take me out of the equation - like me or don't like me. But think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap.

 "Why would you celebrate that? Why would you sit idly and be okay with that? Because here's the secret: If someone is doing that, they don't care about your kid."

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Michelle Obama encouraged healthy eating to combat obesity in children

 While in the White House, Mrs Obama championed the "Let's Move" campaign, which encourages exercise and healthy eating among young people.

 The 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act made federal grants for school meals conditional on reductions in calories, sodium and trans fat content and increases in fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

 However, earlier this month, US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue postponed reductions in sodium, relaxed requirements for whole grains and allowed sweetened flavoured milk back.

 He said some aspects of the standards had "gone too far".

 The agriculture department said the change would give schools "greater flexibility".

Summary: – Michelle Obama slammed Trump administration efforts to delay or roll back her healthy-eating initiatives Friday, saying parents should "think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap." The former first lady, speaking at a health conference in Washington, DC, said healthy school lunches should not be a partisan issue, NBC Chicago reports. "If we want to make this country great, our kids need to be healthy," she said. "Not some, but all." She urged parents to examine the motives of those opposing anti-childhood obesity measures. "You have to stop and think, 'Why don't you want our kids to have good food at school?" she said. Earlier this month, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue, saying some new standards had "gone too far," took measures including postponing sodium restrictions and waiving whole grain requirements, the BBC reports. In her talk Friday, Obama rejected the criticism that her policies led to kids throwing away food. "How about we stop asking kids how they feel about their food because kids—my kids included—if they could eat pizza and french fries every day with ice cream on top ... they would think they were happy, until they get sick," she said, per the AP. "You know what? Kids don't like math either. What are we going to do? Stop teaching math?" (Michelle Obama has ruled out a run for higher office.)


GENEVA The ozone layer that shields life from cancer-causing solar rays is showing its first sign of recovery after years of dangerous depletion, a U.N. study said on Wednesday, in a rare piece of good news on the environment.

 Experts said it was largely down to global action - a 1987 ban on man-made gases that damage the fragile high-altitude screen. The agreement would help prevent millions of cases of skin cancer and other conditions, they added.

 The ozone hole that appears over Antarctica has also stopped growing bigger every year, though it will be about a decade before it starts shrinking, said the report co-produced by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Programme.

 "International action on the ozone layer is a major environmental success story ... This should encourage us to display the same level of urgency and unity to tackle the even greater challenge of tackling climate change," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

 Past studies have suggested the ozone layer has stopped getting worse.

 "Now for the first time in this report we say that we see indications of a small increase in total ozone. That means recovery of the ozone layer in terms of total ozone has just started," said WMO senior scientific officer Geir Braathen.

 The 1987 Montreal Protocol that banned or phased out ozone depleting chemicals, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once widely used in refrigerators and spray cans, would prevent 2 million cases of skin cancer annually by 2030 according to UNEP.

 The agreement would also help avert damage to wildlife, agriculture, human eyes and immune systems, the agency added.

 CLIMATE IMPACT

 The ozone layer was expected to recover towards its 1980 level by mid-century, or slightly later for Antarctica, where it gets dangerously thin every year between mid-August and November or December.

 "The development you saw during the 1990s that the ozone hole got bigger from year to year - that development has stopped, so it has levelled off," said Braathen.

 "We think in about 2025 or thereabouts we'll be able to say with certainty that the ozone hole is getting smaller," he added.

 Progress could be sped up by as much as 11 years if existing stocks of ozone-depleting substances - many of them stored up in old fridges and fire-extinguishers - were destroyed.

 The largest ozone hole on record was about 30 million square km in 2006. The hole now covers about 20 million square km - big enough for the moon to pass through - but may not have peaked this season.

 The size of the hole varies from year to year, partly due to temperature in the upper atmosphere.

 The reduction of ozone-damaging chemicals would also help the environment, the report said, as many of the substances were also greenhouses gases blamed for global warming.

 But the rising levels of other greenhouses gases in the atmosphere had "the potential to undermine these gains," said the report.

 One of the ozone-depleting substances that was supposed to have been phased out - carbon tetrachloride, a solvent - was still being released into the atmosphere suggesting, the report said, illicit production and usage over the past decade.

 (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Andrew Heavens) ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Roger Harrabin reports on the findings

 The ozone layer that shields the earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays is showing early signs of thickening after years of depletion, a UN study says.

 The ozone hole that appears annually over Antarctica has also stopped growing bigger every year.

 The report says it will take a decade before the hole starts to shrink.

 Scientists say the recovery is entirely due to political determination to phase out the man-made CFC gases destroying ozone.

 The study was published by researchers from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

 "International action on the ozone layer is a major environmental success story... This should encourage us to display the same level of urgency and unity to tackle the even greater challenge of tackling climate change," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

 Dr Ken Jucks from the US space agency Nasa told BBC News that humans "have started to do the right thing in order to convert the atmosphere back towards what it was before the industrial revolution started".

 Scientists cannot be absolutely certain yet that the hole will heal itself. Prof David Vaughan from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said that test results from his organisation would throw extra light on the WMO's findings.

 Image caption The largest hole in the ozone layer appears over Antarctica

 "We have to be a bit cautious, but this does look on the face of it like some very good news," he told BBC News. "Our own data from the Antarctic will take a few weeks to process but we hope to confirm the findings. If it's accurate, it underlines the potential power of international agreement."

 CO2 still problematic

 The good news on ozone comes in the wake of bad news on the gases fuelling climate change. The WMO said this week that atmospheric greenhouse gases had reached a record high.

 Tackling a gas like carbon dioxide (CO2) which is central to so many facets of human life is of a completely different order to reducing a few chemicals for which substitutes can be found.

 The 1987 Montreal Protocol that banned or phased out ozone-eating depleting chemicals, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once widely used in refrigerators and spray cans, would prevent two million cases of skin cancer annually by 2030, according to UNEP.

 It would also help prevent damage to wildlife, agriculture, peoples' eyes and immune systems, the agency added.

 The WMO say ozone should recover towards its 1980 level by mid-century, or slightly later for Antarctica, where it gets dangerously thin every year between mid-August and November or December.

 It says progress could be improved by as much as 11 years if existing stocks of ozone-depleting substances - many of them stored up in old fridges and fire-extinguishers - were destroyed.

Summary: – An environment story without warnings of impending doom: The ozone layer that blocks cancer-causing rays from the sun is finally starting to recover thanks to global action, according to the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program. While it will probably take until the middle of this century to recover to where it was in 1980, experts from the world bodies say a 1987 ban on chemicals, including the chlorofluorocarbons once used in fridges and aerosol cans, appears to have paid off, preventing hundreds of thousands of cases of skin cancer in the process, Reuters reports. Researchers hailed the findings as an example of what can happen when the political will is there to protect the environment. Humans "have started to do the right thing in order to convert the atmosphere back toward what it was before the Industrial Revolution started," a NASA expert tells the BBC. WMO chief Michel Jarraud describes the ozone recovery as a "major environmental success story" that "should encourage us to display the same level of urgency and unity to tackle the even greater challenge of tackling climate change." (In another recovery story, a sustainability-monitoring group has taken 21 species of fish off its danger list.)


This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

 The young man didn’t need to, as the song says, smoke two joints in the morning, and smoke two joints at night. One was more than enough when it was roughly 4 feet long and weighed more than two pounds.

 That’s what UC Santa Cruz police officers were confronted with when they descended on a rally last Saturday. The young man was not happy when his cartoonishly large joint was hauled away, according to video footage capturing the incident.

 “Dude, you’re a liar. You’re a liar,” the young man complained as he walked beside a police officer carrying the torch-like joint. “I can’t wait to see you in court. I can show how you’re harassing me.”

 Every year, hundreds of students and others gather at the campus on April 20 to smoke pot. They do so with seemingly little concern for the inevitable police crackdown, which usually involves the confiscation of dime bags, bongs and other paraphernelia.

 But this year, campus police were in for a surprise. The joint, which was wider than your average baseball bat, more than exceeded the state’s one ounce limit for those who carry medical marijuana.

 Jim Burns, a university spokesman, identified the young man as Gennady Tsarinsky, a 25-year-old UC Santa Cruz student. He was arrested on charges of being in possession of more than one ounce of marijuana.

 Burns said he didn’t know what the street value of the marijuana in the joint, nor its exact weight or length.

 “I don’t know if there is a precise measurement,” he said Wednesday. “It certainly would be safe to say several feet long.”

 For the record, 4:46 p.m., April 24: A previous version of this post said incorrectely that Bob Marley sang "Smoke Two Joints."

 Los Angeles has worst traffic in nation, report says

 Family tied up, beaten in Toluca Lake home-invasion robbery

 Man barricades himself inside San Pedro residence, SWAT responds

 Twitter: @LATimesHekutor

 hector.becerra@latimes.com ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

Summary: – No, we didn't write that headline while stoned. California police actually did confiscate a mammoth joint during a 4/20 pot rally on Saturday, reports the Los Angeles Times. As the paper notes, hundreds of UC Santa Cruz students gather each year for the event, and each year campus police confiscate things like bongs and dime bags. But Gennady Tsarinsky took things to a whole new level: what police say was a four-foot-long, two-pound joint. The 25-year-old was arrested and charged with possessing more than an ounce of pot—which happens to be California's limit for medical marijuana users. A video of the bust posted by LiveLeak shows a cop carrying the joint (which is bigger than a loaf of French bread) and a seemingly incredulous Tsarinsky: "Dude, you're a liar. You're a liar," he's recorded as saying. "I can't wait to see you in court. I can show how you’re harassing me."


Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| At this point in the story of the internet, it’s essentially routine for trolls on social media to capitalize on news events to spread fake, racially motivated, or anti-progressive rumors. This fake trolling has the effect of distorting reality, catering to middle America’s worst fears about people of other races and political beliefs, and making progressive political movements seem more extreme than they actually are.

 And now, it could have an effect on the opening-weekend box office for Marvel’s long-awaited Black Panther.

 Related Black Panther is a joyous game changer for Marvel

 On social media, racist trolls are currently attempting to fake a battle that isn’t happening by stealing photos, many of assault victims, from various parts of the internet and claiming they’re evidence of attacks by black moviegoers during Thursday night showings of Black Panther.

 In one tweet, Twitter user Hardcorial stole selfies which were shared online in 2016 by a woman attempting to speak out about her abuse. The Twitter user claimed to have been “brutally attack” [sic] by “black thugs” while attending, “because they said whites weren’t allowed to watch the movie.” This never happened.

 Another troll used a screencap of actor Steven Yun in a scene from The Walking Dead:

 My friend and I went to the #BlackPanther premier and he was brutally beaten for “not belonging there” by an angry group who did not have tickets. Very sad, night ruined pic.twitter.com/Con2bmU2Ag — . (@WHIT3IV3RS0N_) February 16, 2018

 The images being used to perpetrate the hoax occupy a wide range. One troll tweet used a random clip of K-Pop group BlackPink; another used fictional images from a 2013 Serbian video meant to raise awareness of domestic violence.

 But most fakes seem to be co-opting images of real violence. As documented in this tweet, one now-suspended Twitter account used a viral photo from January of a Swedish woman who was brutally attacked after resisting sexual assault; another since-suspended account used a stock image of a bloodied paper towel. Another Twitter user claimed to have witnessed an assault at the movie:

 “Went to the #BlackPanther premier tonight and my wife was assaulted. Three black women approached us and one said “This movie ain’t for you white b****” and then attacked her. Security escorted us to the parking lot and we left. We just wanted to see a movie.”

 The photo the troll used to illustrate the tweet, however, was a photo of Colbie Holderness, the ex-wife of former White House staffer Rob Porter, who resigned following accusations of domestic abuse. The photo was documentation of Porter’s alleged battery of Holderness while they were married.

 Naturally, the fake trolling has since spawned parody trolling — the Walking Dead tweet above may also be an example of this — a hopeful sign that these false accusations of racially motivated violence toward white Black Panther viewers are being recognized for the lies they are.

 Was at the #BlackPanther premiere but a group of black youths said this movie wasnt for spoilt milk Mayo crackers ...I am white. They then proceeded to assault me. Im heading to the ER now.Z pic.twitter.com/qilUc5kCbe — freeponyrides (@3freeponyrides) February 16, 2018

 However, as BuzzFeed noted, at least one troll has also tried to reverse the tactic by claiming a fake assault by white men “in MAGA hats” at a showing of the movie, which is also a lie.

 Meanwhile, there seems to be a real fear on the part of some moviegoers that black viewers could be targeted by white supremacists while attending the film.

 I want y’all to be extra careful in the theaters this weekend. CAREFUL. — Questlove Gomez (@questlove) February 16, 2018

 Black people around the United States, be very very careful at these movie screenings for Black Panther. These white supremacists are emboldened by this #NikolasCruz terror attack #practiceyour2ndamendmentrights — Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) February 15, 2018

 This fear is not coming out of nowhere: Black Panther’s opening weekend follows the deadliest school shooting in five years. In 2012, a mass shooting occurred at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater during the opening weekend of The Dark Knight Rises. And in a tense and ideologically polarized moment, Black Panther, a movie set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda, is becoming heavily politicized.

 Black Panther is already breaking box-office records, and its success could be a game changer for films with diverse casts built around black leads. It’s possible the trolling is an attempt to scare people away from the theaters and cut into the movie’s bankroll — or it could be yet another example of trolling being used to create a disruptive and ever-more-extreme political environment.

 That’s why it’s good to get in the habit of being skeptical online. Always stop and do a reverse image search on any incendiary or inflammatory image you run across online, especially if it seems too awful (or too good) to be true. A reverse image search allows you to look up the original source for an image, if it previously existed on the internet.

 Google’s reverse image search is the most popular, and if you’re using Google’s Chrome browser you can easily perform such a search by right-clicking on any image you see while browsing the web. Another popular reverse image search is Tin Eye, which will let you search stock image databases and can help you identify the earliest-known source for a photo.

 So put on your critical thinking cap and don’t let the trolls scare you. Black Panther, currently sitting at a 98 percent critical approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, is by all accounts worth the trip to the theater.

 Update: This article has been updated to reflect that previous reports that the Parkland shooter was a white supremacist appear to have been false. ||||| In one image, a user shared an actual photo of former White House staffer Rob Porter's ex-wife sporting a black eye with the caption: "Went to the #BlackPanther premier tonight and my wife was assaulted. Three black women approached us and one said 'This movie ain't for you white b****' and then attacked her. Security escorted us to the parking lot and we left. We just wanted to see a movie." ||||| Trolls on Twitter are trying to stoke outrage by making false claims of racially motivated assaults at screenings of. For example, the photo in this tweet actually shows a 19-year-old Swedish woman who was assaulted at a bar last month.

 It has nothing to do with the film.

 Some trolls are using images of battered women to make their false claims. This tweet includes photos of an 18-year-old woman who was locked in an apartment by her boyfriend and assaulted for four hours . He later pled guilty to two charges of assault.

 This troll account used a photo of the ex-wife of former White House staffer Rob Porter

 Here's a sample of the other kinds of tweets sent by the same account...

 This Twitter user used a photo from 2009 to make a false claim about being assaulted at a showing. It's generated over 400 retweets.

 Fortunately, many people on Twitter are calling out these false claims.

 Fake posts are being created to make black people look bad and the sad part of it is some people will believe them… https://t.co/WnhyinOrrw

 This Twitter user went viral by calling out some of the fakes.

 There's a bunch of people on here posting fake assault pictures and saying it was black teens at #BlackPanther showings. God I hate people.

 And a lot of people are outraged by this attempt to create division.

 Unfortunately, the fake tweets keep coming. This account used the name and photo of Paul Nehlen, a racist and anti-Semitic man in Wisconsin who is trying to defeat Rep. Paul Ryan in a Republican primary there. Nehlen's Twitter account was recently banned

 The photo this tweet used is actually taken from a viral 2013 video made in Serbia that used special effects makeup to raise awareness about spousal abuse

 This tweet made a false claim of an assault while including a video from a South Korean pop group called BlackPink

 Some troll accounts also tried to circulate claims that people in MAGA hats were attacking theatergoers at Black Panther screenings. Also not true.

 Remember: If you see an image online and want to check where it came from, do a reverse image search. If you use Chrome as your browser, just right click on an image and select "Search Google for Image."

 It's free and fast, and will help you fight back against fakes.

Summary: – Reason number 149,684,594 the internet should be burned to the ground: Trolls on social media are using photos of actual victims of domestic violence to make false claims that white people are being targeted in racially motivated attacks at Black Panther screenings. BuzzFeed reports one photo shared on Twitter is actually an 18-year-old woman who was assaulted by her boyfriend for hours on end; he later pled guilty. Another shows the ex-wife of former White House aide Rob Porter who has accused him of domestic violence. "Fake posts are being created to make black people look bad and the sad part of it is some people will believe them," the New York Daily News quotes one disappointed Twitter user as saying. Other images used by trolls include a young Swedish woman who was assaulted at a bar in January, a years-old stock photo, and a still from a 2013 video that used special-effects makeup to raise awareness about domestic violence. Vox advises readers to use Google's reverse image search function before believing everything they see online. "It’s possible the trolling is an attempt to scare people away from the theaters and cut into the movie’s bankroll—or it could be yet another example of trolling being used to create a disruptive and ever-more-extreme political environment," the website states. In related news, a number of Twitter users, including Questlove of the Roots, appear genuinely concerned white supremacists could target Black Panther screenings this weekend. (Meanwhile film critics say the hype is real and Black Panther is fantastic.)


The midday assault came more than 24 hours after a militant group, which the Algerians said had ties to jihadis in the region, ambushed a bus carrying gas-field workers to a nearby airport and then commandeered the compound. It was one of the boldest abductions of foreign workers in years.

 The abductions were meant to avenge France ’s armed intervention in neighboring Mali, Mr. Oublaïd said, a conflict that has escalated since French warplanes began striking Islamist fighters who have carved out a vast haven there.

 On Thursday, the United States became more deeply involved in the war, working with the French to determine how to best deploy American C-5 cargo planes to ferry French troops and equipment into Mali, according to an American military official.

 The United States has long been wary about stepping more directly into the Mali conflict, worried that it could provoke precisely the kind of anti-Western attack that took place in Algeria, with deadly consequences. After the raid to free the hostages, the Algerians acknowledged a price had been paid.

 Photo

 “The operation resulted in the neutralization of a large number of terrorists and the liberation of a considerable number of hostages,” said Mr. Oublaïd, the communications minister. “Unfortunately, we deplore also the death of some, as well as some who were wounded.”

 Algerian national radio described a scene of pandemonium and high alert at the public hospital in the town of In Amenas, where wounded and escaped hostages were sent. The director of the hospital, Dr. Shahir Moneir, said in the report that wounded foreign hostages were transferred to the capital, Algiers.

 In a telephone interview from the hospital, one of the Algerians who had been held captive, who identified himself as Mohamed Elias, said some of the hostages had exploited the chaos created by the Algerian assault to flee. “We used the opportunity,” he said, “and we just escaped.”

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 Senior American military officials said that aides traveling in London with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta were struggling to get basic information about the raid, and that an unarmed American Predator drone was monitoring the gas-field site.

 One senior official said that possibly seven to eight Americans were among the hostages — the first official indication of the number of Americans involved — and that he did not know if any had been killed in the raid.

 Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said his office had not been told ahead of time, an implicit criticism of the Algerian government. A spokesman said that Mr. Cameron had learned of the raid through Britain’s own intelligence sources and that “the Algerians are aware that we would have preferred to have been consulted in advance.”

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 Mr. Cameron told reporters the situation was “very dangerous” as he and other British officials appeared to prepare for bad news. The gravity of the crisis prompted him to cancel plans to deliver a major speech in Amsterdam .

 Japan also expressed strong concern, saying Algeria had failed not only to advise of the operation ahead of time, but to heed its request to halt the operation because it was endangering the hostages.

 “We asked Algeria to put human lives first and asked Algeria to strictly refrain,” the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, quoted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as telling his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmalek Sellal, by telephone late Thursday.

 The situation is “very confused,” President François Hollande of France said at a news conference in Paris and was “evolving hour by hour.” Mr. Hollande gave the first official confirmation that French citizens were among the captives.

 Photo

 A European diplomat who was involved in the effort to coordinate a Western response to the hostage seizure said that the information available to the United States, France and Britain had been “confusing at best, and sometimes contradictory.”

 Several Western officials complained that the Algerians appeared to have taken none of the usual care exercised to minimize casualties when trying to free hostages.

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 “They care deeply about their sovereign rights,” said the European diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s delicacy.

 Even before reports of the Algerian military’s raid began to emerge, many hostages — Algerian and foreign — were reported to have escaped as the kidnappers failed to persuade the Algerian authorities to give them safe passage with their captives.

 The Algerian news site T.S.A. quoted a local official, Sidi Knaoui, as saying that 10 foreigners and 40 Algerians had managed to flee after the kidnappers made several attempts to leave with the hostages.

 Ireland confirmed that an Irish citizen, Stephen McFaul, had escaped. The man had contacted his family and was “understood to be safe and well and no longer a hostage,” Irish officials said.

 Earlier, a French TV station, France 24, quoted an unidentified hostage as saying the attackers “threatened to blow up the gas field.”

 Algeria’s interior minister, Daho Ould Kablia, said the seizure of the gas field had been overseen by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian who fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s and had reportedly established his own group in the Sahara after falling out with other Qaeda leaders.

 The description of the leader was one of the most specific pieces of information given by the Algerians on a day of vague and contradictory accounts of the abduction and raid. Well into the night, officials warned that hostages were still being held inside the compound and that the crisis remained unresolved.

 “It’s a painful situation. It’s not over,” said a senior Algerian official. “I can’t tell you how many are left in there. No numbers. None at all. Nothing is certain.” ||||| Thirty-four hostages and 15 kidnappers have been killed in eastern Algeria after the military launched a rescue attempt, according to the group holding the hostages.

 Thursday's reported deaths came a day after dozens of foreigners and Algerians were taken hostage by heavily armed fighters near the In Amenas gas field.

 The fighters said they seized the hostages in retaliation for Algeria letting France use its airspace to launch operations against rebels in northern Mali , but security experts said the raid appeared to have been planned well in advance.

 Algeria's Communication Minister Mohamed Said confirmed that hostages had been killed or wounded in an ongoing army assault.

 "The operation is ongoing," he said, speaking on national television in the first official comment on the rescue operation.

 The minister said "several people" were killed or wounded, adding that an "important number" of hostages were freed.

 The spokesman for the Masked Brigade, which had claimed responsibility for the abductions on Wednesday, told Mauritanian ANI news agency that the deaths were a result of a government helicopter attack on a convoy transporting hostages and kidnappers.

 The official Algerian APS news agency said nearly 600 Algerian workers and four foreign hostages - two Britons, a Frenchman and a Kenyan - had been freed during the operation.

 The Irish foreign ministry said an Irish man had also been freed.

 Refusal to negotiate

 The Masked Brigade spokesman said Abou el-Baraa, the leader of the kidnappers, was among those killed in the helicopter attack. He said the fighters would kill the rest of their captives if the army approached.

 Algeria has refused to negotiate with what it says is a band of about 20 fighters.

 Youcef Bouandel, professor of International Affairs, talks to Al Jazeera about the crisis

 Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould dismissed theories that the fighters had come from Libya, 100km away, or from Mali, more than 1,000km away. He said the well-armed gunmen were from Algeria itself, operating under orders from Moktar Belmoktar, al-Qaeda's strongman in the Sahara.

 ANI, which has been in constant contact with the al-Qaeda-affiliated kidnappers, said seven hostages were still being held: two Americans, three Belgians, one Japanese and one British citizen.

 Norwegians, French, Romanian and Malaysian citizens were also among those taken hostage.

 The White House said it believed Americans were among the hostages and was concerned about reports of loss of life.

 "This is an ongoing situation and we are seeking clarity," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

 Japanese critical

 Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Minoru Kiuchi, who is now in Algeria, urged the Algerian government to put an "immediate end" to the military operation.

 Britain was not given prior notice of the Algerian government operation to release hostages and would have

 preferred to have been informed, Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman said.

 A Briton was among two people killed on Wednesday, after fighters launched an ambush of a bus carrying employees from the gas plant to the nearby airport.

 The In Amenas gas field is jointly operated by British oil giant BP, Norway's Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrach.

 France launched a major offensive against the rebel group Ansar al-Dine in Mali on January 11 to prevent them from advancing on the capital, Bamako.

 Algeria had long warned against military intervention against the rebels, fearing the violence could spill over the border.

 Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan, following the hostage situation from London, said Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has allied himself with the West in the fight against al-Qaeda.

 "As recently as last year it seemed that he was turning the last stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the mountains up in the north where the Berber people are natives, against those Arabs that have been coming in from outside," he said. "The Algerian authorities have been enjoying significant successes in targeting al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leaders." ||||| The attack on the Algerian gas field has raised fears of the conflict in Mali becoming an international battle bleeding across the porous borders of the Sahel and Sahara region.

 It also presents a major challenge to the military-dominated regime in Algiers – still in the shadow of a decade of bloody civil war – which had been accused of having an ambiguous stance towards the Mali crisis.

 Algeria will now firmly be dragged into resolving the Mali conflict, while also dealing with the return of major action by Islamist groups on its home turf.

 The hostage-taking has spelled out the complexities of the unrest in the Sahel: a tangled mix of communal tensions, economic struggle, desertification, poverty, criminality, kidnapping and smuggling, which shifts seamlessly across borders.

 With six days of French airstrikes failing to erode the Islamist gains in Mali, French special forces prepared to launch a land assault on Wednesday around Diabaly, 250 miles (450 km) from the capital.

 France's aim is to secure the vast desert area seized last year by an Islamist alliance, which combines al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – the terrorist network's north African wing – with Mali's homegrown Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mojwa) and Ansar Dine rebel groups. But the Algerian hostage drama at the BP oilfield far away to the north at the Algerian-Libyan border marks a turning point and a widening of the game.

 Attacks on oil-rich Algeria's hydrocarbon facilities are very rare, despite the country's decades of fighting an Islamist insurgency, mostly in the north.

 Jon Marks, associate fellow at Chatham House, London's leading foreign affairs thinktank, said: "The attack is remarkable for a number of reasons.

 "If you look at Algeria's conflict of the 1990s, out of which AQIM sprang, the major oil and gas fields of the deep south, a strategic interest to Europe, were not attacked. Even in Algeria's bloody history, this is the first time there has been major attack on a hydrocarbon facility.

 "It shows the degree to which the events in Mali are an international Sahel and Sahara-wide issue. These groups are international: including Malians, people who came from the Libya conflict, but also from Algeria and Mauritania."

 He said the attack showed how deep-rooted those groups were. "The groups we are now calling AQIM, that the French military are targeting, have roots going back decades in the region. They have been involved in cigarette smuggling, electronic goods smuggling, guns, drugs, a lot of criminality."

 He described it as a potent "interface" where criminality meets politics in an area that is "more and more desperate".

 Algeria, the region's economic and military powerhouse where the regime of generals holds firm despite the Arab spring elsewhere, had been a major opponent of foreign armed intervention in Mali, preferring negotiations.

 Until now, it fiercely clung to its policy of non-intervention in its neighbours. But has now opened its airspace to the French air force, a historic event, and vowed to secure its vast desert border with Mali, an undertaking commentators say is almost impossible in the poorly patrolled desert wastes.

 Although an ally of the US and France in fighting terrorism for years, Algeria has been accused by some of playing a double game in the Sahel where Islamist groups have flourished since the country's bloody war of independence. The regime's involvement in Mali and the Sahel will now become more of a focus, as the conflict looks likely to be drawn out.

 A poll on Wednesday found 64% of French people felt the Mali intervention would increase the risk of a terrorist attack on French soil, and armed patrols were in force at potential targets such as the Eiffel Tower.

 France had been acutely aware that hostage-taking in the Sahel would be the key immediate risk of its sudden Mali intervention.

 Unlike Algerian terrorist operations in the 1990s, AQIM has never struck on French soil. But the militant groups that seized control of northern Mali last year had targeted foreigners for years on their own turf.

 They already hold seven French hostages as well as four Algerian diplomats, seized several years ago. AQIM has made tens of millions of dollars from kidnapping Algerian businessmen or political figures for ransom, as well as foreigners.

 On the same day that France launched its sudden Mali intervention last week, it staged a rescue attempt of a French intelligence agent held for more than three years by rebels in Somalia, and referred by the fake name of Denis Allex.

 If the French rescue mission to save Allex was destined to deliver a warning against hostage-taking and head off reprisals against French hostages, the operation went spectacularly wrong. Two French soldiers died and the hostage was presumed to have been killed by his jailers during the failed assault.

 The French president, François Hollande, was at pains once again on Wednesday to say France had "no interest" in Mali and was just "serving peace". Hollande emphasised his promise to break with murky post-colonial relations of the past.

 Mali is small beer within the wider context of French economic interests in west Africa, but Mali's neighbours are a different matter. Niger's uranium services one third of the French nuclear power stations which produce most of the country's electricity.

 It was in Niger that workers for French nuclear firm Areva were kidnapped in 2010, four are still held in the Sahel. Algeria – Africa's biggest country and France's biggest African economic partner – is a major exporter of oil and gas to Europe. The oil field hostage-taking shows the wider global interests that could now come into play. ||||| Story highlights U.S. military plans to fly French troops to nations near Mali, an official says

 France has been helping Mali's government battle Islamist militants from its north

 Several other nations have vowed support for Mali

 French airstrikes have recently struck near the central town of Diabaly

 French warplanes pounded Islamist militant targets in Mali Thursday as international efforts to help the African nation's government fight insurgents gained momentum.

 For a fourth consecutive day, airstrikes hit in and around Diabaly -- a town in central Mali, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital of Bamako -- prompting men, women and children to flee or find cover, witnesses said.

 "People are desperate to get out," said Ibrahim Toure, a civilian who left Diabaly on Thursday.

 French fighter jets targeted the town since Monday, after Islamist rebels settled in a military camp on its outskirts that had been abandoned by Malian soldiers.

 The Islamists told Diabaly's residents they could stay, and they prevented some from leaving, said Cheick Oumar, a construction worker in the town.

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 "People are left without protection," he said. "The rebels say they will not hurt anyone, but people are afraid they will turn Diabaly into a new Islamist stronghold and impose Sharia law."

 Mali had been one of the most successful democracies in Africa until last year, when a coup toppled the president and Islamists capitalized on the chaos by establishing themselves in the north.

 There, they imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia law by banning music, smoking, drinking and watching sports on television. They also damaged Timbuktu's historic tombs and shrines.

 The International Criminal Court has launched a war-crimes investigation amid reports that residents have been mutilated and killed for disobeying the Islamists. The United Nations has noted accounts of amputations, floggings and public executions such as the July stoning of a couple who had reportedly had an affair.

 As the rebels moved southward toward Bamako, such reports prompted an international response, led by the French.

 In addition to sending its warplanes, the French have stationed about 1,400 troops inside Mali in "Operation Serval."

 Europe's largest powers appeared united in their goal of removing al Qaeda-linked militants from the West African nation, where Islamist rebels are fighting to form their own territory in the north. This effort gained renewed urgency after militants -- upset at Algeria for allowing warplanes to use its airspace to launch attacks in Mali -- took hostage scores of Algerian and foreign workers at an Algerian gas facility about 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) west of the Libyan border.

 Nations including Germany, Belgium and Canada have pledged to contribute transport planes. Others, such as Italy, are promising "logistical support" for the operation.

 The United States is supporting the French-led effort in Mali "with intelligence and airlift," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

 The plan is for U.S. military aircraft, accompanied by U.S. military security forces, to fly French troops and equipment into a neighboring country -- because the airport in Bamako is "very busy" -- after which they can move on the ground, a U.S. defense official said.

 Washington has not decided whether to grant French requests for surveillance and aerial refueling services, the official said.

 By this weekend, U.S. trainers will be in Africa "to offer pre-deployment training and sustainment packages" for troops from African nations who are heading to Mali.

 In response to a request for help from Malian authorities, European Union foreign ministers agreed Thursday on a mission to train Mali's army, the EU said. The mission is to include instructors, support staff and force protection for 15 months, it added. The agency has said about 450 non-combat troops will be launched, perhaps by next month.

 French President Francois Hollande has said it was a "necessary decision" to enter the country.

 "There are terrorist networks which, following what happened in Libya last year, have installed themselves in a large part of West Africa and are trying to destabilize the area and are involved in trafficking," he said Thursday. "Our duty is to put an end to this, and France assumes its responsibility."

Summary: – Some 35 hostages and 15 Islamist militants in the Algerian crisis have reportedly been killed in a helicopter attack launched by the Algerian military, reports the AP. Those numbers, however, were released by the militants, who also announced that seven of the 41 hostages taken, including two Americans, are still alive. An Algerian official had said earlier that 20 foreign hostages had escaped before the raid. Confused by the dubious math? As Francois Holland said at a press conference today, the situation is "very confused." Al-Jazeera reports that the dead include lead kidnapper Abu Al Baraa. His group says the deaths occurred as they tried to leave the remote Sahara gas plant with their hostages. CNN reports that the militants, who attacked workers as they rode a bus early yesterday, had initially sought safe passage to Libya, which is 40 miles away from the facility, but an Algerian official said no dice: "We have received their demands, but we didn't respond to them." While the attackers say they're responding to France's actions in Mali, British foreign secretary William Hague has raised doubts: "That is a convenient excuse, but usually operations like this take longer to plan." Still, the crisis could be a bad omen for similar attacks across the region, notes the Guardian.