Well, seems like LulzSec has returned, and moved beyond the DDOS attack! Not content to merely shut down one of Rupert Murdoch's paper's websites, the hacking group has instead planted a bizarro-Onionesque account of the mogul's death-by-palladium on a Times redesign page masquerading as The Sun. Well played, #AntiSec.

 The the hack was first announced by AnonymousIRC with a tweet, saying:

 We have joy we have fun we will mess up Murdoch's Sun: http://t.co/JArvwg1 | Hi Rupert! Have fun tomorrow at the Parliament! #AntiSec

 Murdoch's papers of course, and several of his lieutenants have been implicated in the massive hacking scandal that began to unfold earlier this month. Murdoch is scheduled to appear before the British parliament tomorrow.

 As of the time of this post, the report was still up. Despite announcing the attack ten minutes after AnonymousIRC—and previous claims of retirement—LulzSec has taken credit for the hacking. They claimed in a tweet that visits to The Sun's homepage redirected to the Murdoch death notice page, though that no longer appears to be the case. And in case it gets taken down soon, here's the full text:

 Media moguls [sic] body discovered Rupert Murdoch, the controversial media mogul, has reportedly been found dead in his garden, police announce.

 Murdoch, aged 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night, passing out in the early hours of the morning.

 "We found the chemicals sitting beside a kitchen table, recently cooked," one officer states. "From what we can gather, Murdoch melted and consumed large quantities of it before exiting into his garden." Chemicals found in house Authorities would not comment on whether this was a planned suicide, though the general consensus among locals and unnamed sources is that this is the case.

 One detective elaborates. "Officers on the scene report a broken glass, a box of vintage wine, and what seems to be a family album strewn across the floor, containing images from days gone by; some containing handpainted portraits of Murdoch in his early days, donning a top hat and monocle."

 Another officer reveals that Murdoch was found slumped over a particularly large garden hedge fashioned into a galloping horse. "His favourite", a butler, Davidson, reports.

 Butler Davidson has since been taken into custody for additional questioning.

 As far as post-modern takes on "who will watch the watchmen" go, it ain't half bad. Here's the full page image:

 Update: The Times dummy page has finally been taken down—and visiting TheSun.co.uk will redirect you to the LulzSec twitter page—but will stay up indefinitely here on Gizmodo.

 Also, the email logins of major News of the World players—including former top News Corp exec Rebeka Brooks—have begun trickling out.

 Apparently News International attempted to put out a statement regarding what had happened to The Sun, but LulzSec redirected the page to its Twitter feed before it could be widely circulated. [Times via Twitter] ||||| The fruits of today's Sun UK hack are starting to dangle down: LulzSec (out of retirement?) and Anon are tweeting logins of some serious British media brass. Foremost? Rebekah Brooks, the epicenter of England's voicemail hacking scandal. Update: phone numbers!

 The tweet divulged the email and password info for one Rebekah Wade—Brooks' maiden name—along with many others from Murdoch's tabloid upper crust:

 Harvey Shaw—Publishing Operations Team Manager, News International—Phone number Pete Picton—Sun Online Editor—Phone number Lee Wells—Editorial Support Manager at News International—Email and Password Bill Akass—Managing Editor, News of the World—Email and password Chris Hampartsoumian—Former Online Editor at timeonline.co.uk—Phone number Danny Rogers—Sun Online Editorial Manager—Email and password

 This trickle is probably only the start. LulzSec appears to be hard at work squeezing more logins out of The Sun's servers:

 We are battling with The Sun admins right now - I think they are losing. The boat has landed... >:]

 In other words, expect more—though the only login fish bigger than Brooks would be Murdoch's.

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 Update: AntiSec operators have tweeted phone numbers for The Sun's online editor, Pete Picton, along with two other (lesser) Sun editorial figures.

Summary: – So it turns out that the News of the World isn't the only gig in town that can hack: Notorious prankster-hackers LulzSec and Anonymous are wreaking havoc with Rupert Murdoch and his empire, reports Gizmodo. Lulzsec fired the first volley, publishing a cheeky account of Murdoch's death—via palladium—on a webpage masquerading as Murdoch's Sun. The post has since been taken down, but you can see a screenshot in the gallery. Not content to simply poke at Murdoch, LulzSec and Anonymous took the fight to Murdoch's newly-unemployed-and-arrested exec, Rebekah Brooks, tweeting her email login and password, notes Sam Biddle on Gizmodo. Other executives' information, including their phone numbers, followed, and it appears that the hackers are busily ferreting out more information. "We are battling with The Sun admins right now - I think they are losing," tweeted LulzSec.


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - President Barack Obama faces a stony reception when he travels to the West Bank on Thursday for talks with Palestinian leaders who accuse him of letting Israel ride rough-shod over their dream of statehood.

 Obama has said he will not bring any new initiatives to try to revive long-dormant peace talks and has instead come to Israel and the Palestinian territories for simple consultations.

 Arriving in Israel on Wednesday, the main focus of initial discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be pressing regional concerns, primarily Iran's nuclear ambitions and the civil war in neighboring Syria.

 After repeated run-ins with Netanyahu during Obama's first term in office, the mood between the two men appeared to be much warmer, angering Palestinians, who blame the 2010 collapse of U.S.-backed peace negotiations on the Israeli leader's expansion of Jewish settlements on land where they want their state.

 Obama is to address the decades-old conflict in talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and also in a keynote speech just hours later to a large audience of carefully screened Israeli students in Jerusalem.

 But after the lofty ambitions of his first term, when he appointed a special envoy to the Middle East on his very first day in charge and said peacemaking was a priority, it was clear that Obama has now set the bar significantly lower.

 "I will consider this a success if, when I go back on Friday, I am able to say to myself I have a better understanding of what the constraints are," he told a joint news conference on Wednesday, standing alongside Netanyahu.

 The three-day visit is Obama's first to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank since entering the White House in 2009, and the inaugural foreign trip of a second and final four-year term that began in January.

 Sporadic protests flared in the West Bank and Gaza Strip this week, with Palestinians accusing Obama of not doing enough to halt Israeli settlement-building on land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

 In 2009, Obama bluntly told Israel it had to halt settlement construction, but he later backed away from the demand and made no mention of the enclaves on Wednesday.

 Posters depicting Obama were defaced in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem earlier this week and anti-U.S. sentiment bubbled up on social media.

 "Do Not Enter," said one poster put up on Facebook, showing Obama's face with a red line crossed through it. "The people of Palestine do not welcome you here."

 BACK-SLAPPING

 Obama was feted when he arrived at Tel Aviv airport on Wednesday, with Israeli leaders lining up to praise the U.S. president for his firm commitment to the security of the Jewish state and his pledge not to let Iran develop nuclear weapons.

 Netanyahu, while citing what he described as Israel's right to defend itself, said effusively that he was "absolutely convinced" that Obama was determined to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Tehran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.

 After four years of often icy relations with Netanyahu, the body language suddenly changed. Gone were the pursed lips and ill-disguised scowls. In came firm handshakes and back-slapping.

 "Israel has no better friend than the United States of America," Netanyahu said, adding that he hoped his visit would help "turn the page" in relations with the Palestinians.

 "Israel remains fully committed to peace and to the solution of two states for two peoples. We stretch out our hand in friendship to the Palestinian people," he added.

 Watching from Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative center just outside Jerusalem, Abbas's allies accused Netanyahu of repeating empty rhetoric and said Obama showed no inclination to re-engage with an issue that confounded his predecessors.

 "The primary purpose of this visit is Israeli security, Israeli-American relations and saying that the U.S. has its back," said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

 Obama will fly by helicopter the few miles from Jerusalem to Ramallah on Thursday morning, giving himself a birds' eye view of the walls and fences of the separation barrier between the two cities and of Israeli settlements on surrounding hilltops.

 Before that, he will go to a museum in Jerusalem to see the Dead Sea Scrolls - ancient Jewish parchments discovered in the West Bank in the 1940s.

 Israeli diplomats say that will help make amends to Israel for a speech Obama made in Cairo in 2009, when he appeared to argue the Jewish state derived its legitimacy from the Holocaust rather than an attachment to the land dating back to the Bible.

 Obama will travel to Bethlehem on Friday to visit the Church of the Nativity, and will also lay a wreath on the grave in Jerusalem of Theodor Herzl, the Zionist visionary who died more than four decades before the 1948 founding of Israel.

 The U.S. leader will then fly to neighboring Jordan, one of only two Arab states that has made peace with Israel.

 (Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Ramallah, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Matt Spetalnick and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Alastair Macdonald) ||||| President Obama's first foreign trip after his re-election is to Israel, which he hasn't visited as president. The trip includes stops in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. A look at his itinerary:

 Since President Obama last visited the region in 2009, the Arab Spring uprisings have left neighboring countries in a various states of unrest and peril.

 President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands Wednesday at a news conference in Jerusalem. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP) Story Highlights Netanyahu, Obama agree Israeli security paramount with Iran

 The trip is seen as a chance to improve U.S. relations with Israelis and Palestinians

 A recent poll in Israel found just 10% of Israelis view Obama favorably

 JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference Wednesday he was "absolutely convinced" President Obama is determined to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

 Netanyahu made his remarks at the end of a long day for Obama, who toured Israeli military facilities and stressed that the two nations share the same concern over Iran's nuclear program.

 "There is not a lot of daylight" between Israel and the United States on assessments of the status of Iran's nuclear program, Obama said at the joint news conference.

 Netanyahu made special point to the media of noting that Obama had reiterated Israel's right to take steps of its own to defend itself and that includes against Iran.

 "Each country has to make its own decisions when it comes to the awesome decision to engage in any kind of military action," Obama said. "And Israel is differently situated than the United States."

 Obama was greeted warmly on Wednesday in Israel where he is on a high-profile trip to Israel, his first as president, to assure the Jewish state of U.S. commitment to stopping a nuclear Iran and boost the prospect of peace talks with Palestinians demanding their own state.

 "The United States is proud to stand with you as your strongest ally and your greatest friend," Obama said after disembarking from Air Force One at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport. "It's in our fundamental security interest to stand with Israel."

 "Across this region, the winds of change bring both promise and peril," he said, calling his visit "an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our nations, to restate America's unwavering commitment to Israel's security, and to speak directly to the people of Israel and to your neighbors."

 Obama said his administration would pursue a Mideast peace that would allow residents of the Jewish state to live in peace and free from the threat of terror.

 "In this work, the state of Israel will have no greater friend than the United States," the president said after meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

 Peres said he welcomed Obama's clear message that "no one should let skepticism win the day, a vision that says clearly that peace is not only a wish, but a possibility."

 The two presidents planted a tree brought from the United States to symbolize the relationship between the two nations.

 Netanyahu, who has disagreed with Obama on matters of Israeli security, praised the president for his commitment to peace and security for Israel.

 "Thank you for standing by Israel at this time of historic change in the Middle East," he said. "Thank you for unequivocally affirming Israel's sovereign right to defend itself by itself against any threat."

 The two leaders met again Wednesday evening for dinner at Netanyahu's home, and held their joint news conference afterward.

 The White House said it does not expect significant agreements to come out of the trip, in which Obama will also visit Jordan. Obama last visited the region in 2009, traveling to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. He visited the Jewish state in 2008 as a presidential candidate.

 But Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, are skeptical that President Obama's visit will lead to anything substantive on the peace front.

 OBAMA IN ISRAEL: Palestinians not optimistic about Obama's agenda

 ISRAELI REACTIONS: Charmed by Obama's warm remarks

 "The only thing I expect from this visit is huge traffic jams," said a 60-year-old Jerusalemite on Wednesday, who was watching an early-morning talk show on TV in the small store where he sells lottery tickets, ahead of Obama's arrival.

 "When someone comes to Israel to work seriously, he does so quietly, not with a lot of noise," said Natan, who said he could not share his last name because he has worked in Israeli security. For Natan, "peace means that my grandchildren won't have to serve in the army. But that's just a dream," he said.

 President Obama arrives on a high-profile trip to Israel to assure the Jewish state of U.S. commitment to stopping a nuclear Iran and boost the prospect of peace talks with Palestinians demanding their own state.

 Preparing for a crush of breakfast customers at the bagel café where he works, Nabulsi Alaa, 26, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, expressed the hope that the American president's visit will make it possible for Arabs in Israel to visit family and friends in the West Bank, and for Arabs in the West Bank to visit Israel. "I'm somewhat optimistic," Alaa said.

 Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Edward Djerejian says the trip is a chance to improve U.S. relations with Israelis and Palestinians and clarify where the United States stands on the tumultuous events of the Middle East.

 "I'm a believer in the importance of the personal relationship and dialogue between leaders," said Djerejian, ambassador under President Clinton. "It's important they establish a working relationship ... that can be translated into possible action."

 Since Obama last visited, the region has become more dangerous. A 2-year-old rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad rages in Syria. Iran is refusing to end its nuclear program despite U.N. sanctions. Islamist governments have gained power in Egypt and Tunisia, and Muslim militias backed by al-Qaeda are on the rise in North Africa and the Persian Gulf states.

 Peres referred to these threats in his remarks upon Obama's arrival.

 "The greatest danger is a nuclear Iran. We have tried non-military means, but other options are on the table," he said.

 "Hamas remains a terror organization that targets innocent people. On the northern border is Iran's proxy Hezbollah. Hezbollah is destroying Lebanon and supporting the brutal massacre of the Syrian people ... fortunately Syria's nuclear capacity was destroyed, but unfortunately there are still chemical weapons."

 Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have stalled. Israel says the Palestinian Authority refuses to negotiate over the portions of the West Bank that should go to a Palestinian state and those that should be part of Israel. Palestinians argue that Israel will not compromise to their satisfaction, so why negotiate?

 Palestinians held small protests in the West Bank and Gaza. Demonstrators in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip burned posters of Obama and U.S. flags, accusing the U.S. of being biased toward Israel. The militant Hamas, which has been designated a terror group by the U.S., vows to destroy Israel.

 In the West Bank, about 200 activists erected about a dozen tents in an area just outside of Jerusalem to draw attention to Israel's policy of building housing in areas they want for an independent state.

 Silvan Shalom, a Cabinet minister in Netanyahu's Likud Party, said a provisional agreement is possible. "Our goal is to reach an agreement (even) if it is in stages," he said.

 Dan Schueftan, the director of the National Security Center at the University of Haifa, and a visiting professor at Georgetown University, predicted the Obama visit will accomplish almost nothing for Israeli-Palestinian relations.

 "You can't be pessimistic enough. The gaps between the mainstream Israeli and Palestinian positions are too large. You can't have a peace deal without including Gaza," Schueftan said. "But you can't reach a settlement with the (Palestinian President) Abbas that doesn't include Gaza. And Israel can't include Gaza."

 Furthermore, he said, the Palestinians won't abandon the "right of return," but "if you bring to Israel every Palestinian whose grandparents left in 1948. No Israeli government could survive if it agreed to this."

 Still, Schueftan believes Obama's visit could strengthen U.S-Israel ties.

 "The basic relations between Israel and the U.S. are very, very solid. I think Obama realizes that he went about things in the wrong way in his first term in office and is adopting a different approach that has much more potential to succeed.

 "Now, he is emphasizing the positive and is willing to listen to the Israelis. And the recent Israeli election produced a much more centrist reality. We have a much better starting point."

 However, Obama arrives at a time when a recent media poll in Israel found just 10% of Israelis view him favorably — in light of his public bouts with Netanyahu, who asked Obama to set a "red line" on when military forces must be used against Iran.

 "Obama is retreating from the Middle East, indifferent to the collapse of Egypt, uninterested in the return of al-Qaeda to Iraq, and he appears to have no blueprint for Iran other than more concessions," says Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute. "So why's he going?"

 Contributing: Oren Dorell in McLean, Va. ||||| JERUSALEM — Showing solidarity with Israel’s growing concern about chemical weapons in neighboring Syria, President Obama stated bluntly on Wednesday that if an investigation he had ordered found proof that the Syrian military had used such weapons it would be a “game changer” in American involvement in the civil war there.

 On the first day of his first trip to Israel as president, in which Israeli officials stated their own conclusion that chemical weapons had been used in an attack on Tuesday in Syria, Mr. Obama’s remarks represented both an effort to warn the Syrian government of the consequences of using its chemical arsenal and to signal his administration’s support for Israel, the central point of his visit.

 American officials reiterated that they did not have independent evidence that chemical weapons had been used, and the president made clear that it would require proof gathered by investigators before he would come to any conclusions. Mr. Obama, while vocal in his opposition to the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, has been reluctant to involve American forces in support of the opposition. Presidential aides made clear that he was not signaling any change in that regard.

 Photo

 But Mr. Obama’s remarks, in which he pointedly left open the possibility that President Assad’s government had used chemical weapons — and all but ruled out Mr. Assad’s assertions that insurgents had used them — were unusually strong in tone.

 “Once we establish the facts, I have made clear that the use of chemical weapons is a game changer,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

 Again and again during his visit, Mr. Obama signaled that the United States and Israel were partners on a broad range of issues, reinforcing their historic alliance and America’s stated commitment to protect Israeli security. Mr. Obama pointedly emphasized his administration’s pledge to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, one of Mr. Netanyahu’s greatest fears.

 But concern about chemical weapons in Syria were a major focus of the day.

 Two senior ministers in Israel’s new cabinet said publicly on Wednesday that chemical weapons had been used, and several government officials said in interviews that Israel had credible evidence of an attack. The ministers, Tzipi Livni and Yuval Steinetz, were among those who met with Mr. Obama here on the first day of his trip.

 A senior American official, however, said Mr. Netanyahu had not presented conclusive evidence of an attack in his closed-door discussions with Mr. Obama. The president’s words might have been intended to reassure Mr. Netanyahu, who has long feared that Mr. Assad’s stockpiles of chemical weapons could be used against Israelis.

 In Washington, the American ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford, testified before Congress that the United States still did not have proof that the weapons had been used. But he added, “We take these reports and these possibilities very seriously.”

 Mr. Obama’s remarks were his first public reaction to the reports on Tuesday that chemical weapons had been used. They seemed calculated, in part, to counter claims by both the Syrian government and its major supporter, Russia, that opposition forces had mounted a chemical attack against the government.

 “We intend to investigate thoroughly exactly what happened,” Mr. Obama said. “I’ve instructed my teams to find out precisely what happened, what we can document, what we can prove.”

 While Mr. Obama cautioned that he did not have all the facts, he said, “We know the Syrian government has the capacity to carry out chemical attacks” and that he was “deeply skeptical of any claim that it was the opposition that used chemical weapons.”

 Israeli officials provided no proof of their assertions but appeared more confident that chemical weapons had been used.

 Ms. Livni, the new Israeli justice minister, said in an interview with CNN, “It’s clear for us here in Israel that it’s being used,” adding, “This, I believe, should be on the table in the discussions.”

 Mr. Steinetz, the minister for strategic affairs, said on Israel’s Army Radio, “It’s apparently clear that chemical weapons have been used against civilians by the rebels or the government.”

 Two senior Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak, said that Israel was sure that chemicals were used, but did not have details about what type of weapons were used, where they came from, when they were deployed, or by whom.

 A third senior official, also refusing to be identified, said, “It is possible that chemical weapons were used, or some concoction of chemical substances,” but he said he had not “seen clear confirmation.”

 Mr. Obama spoke after both the Syrian opposition and the government escalated accusations of chemical weapons use, with both sides demanding an international investigation.

 The National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, the umbrella political group that wants to topple Mr. Assad, said in a statement that it “condemns these attacks and holds the Assad regime fully responsible for shedding Syrian blood.” The group said the attacks killed at least 19 civilians and left 69 others short of breath, with some in critical condition.

 The coalition accused government forces of carrying out two chemical weapons attacks on Tuesday — one in the Khan al-Assal area of northern Aleppo Province, as originally asserted, and a second strike in the Ataybah area of suburban Damascus.

 Ambassador Ford, in his testimony, also said that the United States was investigating reports of attacks in the north, and in the suburbs of Damascus.

 Fears about Syria’s growing instability are shadowing Mr. Obama on each stop of this trip. On Thursday, he is to visit the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who is expected to raise worries about the plight of Palestinians in Syria. On Friday, he is scheduled to meet King Abdullah in Jordan, which has been flooded with Syrian refugees.

 At the United Nations, the Syrian ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told reporters that his government had also requested an official inquiry to corroborate its claims that insurgents — not government forces — had used the weapons. Mr. Jaafari said he had delivered a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office seeking a “specialized, independent and neutral technical mission to investigate the use by the terrorist groups operating in Syria of chemical weapons yesterday against civilians.”

 Mr. Ban’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said the request was under study.

 Mr. Nesirky also repeated Mr. Ban’s reaction to the first allegations of chemical weapons use on Tuesday, saying, “The secretary general remains convinced that the use of chemical weapons by any party under any circumstances would constitute an outrageous crime.”

 The chemical weapons issue quickly became entangled in the longstanding, sharp divisions on Syria in the United Nations Security Council, between Russia and those Western states opposed to the Damascus government.

 In a Security Council debate, France said the United Nations should investigate the opposition’s accusations that chemical weapons were used by the government not just in the Aleppo area but also at the second site, in the Damascus suburbs. Russia accused the West of trying to create a diversion, an accusation echoed by the Syrian envoy.

 The Russian envoy, Vitaly I. Churkin, said the United States, France and others were engaged in “delaying tactics,” for raising the allegation of a second site and for demands like humanitarian access to treat any victims.

 “Instead of launching those propaganda balloons it is better to get our focus right,” Mr. Churkin said.

 The Western demands, he said, echoed inspections instituted against Iraq more than a decade ago, which failed to find any chemical weapons. Mr. Churkin also said he would not put it past the opposition to fake a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government because it knows their use might well prompt international intervention. The Syrian ambassador seconded that possibility.

 The French envoy, Gerard Araud, sarcastically referring to Mr. Churkin’s summary of the council debate as “fascinating,” said France and its allies wanted the United Nations to investigate all possible incidents.

Summary: – Maybe the most newsworthy item out of President Obama's news conference today with Benjamin Netanyahu centered on Syria, not Israel. Obama said the US is investigating claims that chemical weapons were used in Aleppo, and he warned that Bashar al-Assad will be held accountable if he employed them, reports Reuters. "I’ve instructed my teams to find out precisely whether this red line was crossed," said Obama, using language the New York Times described as "surprisingly strong in tone." The president added that he was "deeply skeptical" of the Assad regime's claims that it was rebels who used chemical weapons. (It remains unclear whether either side used them.) Obama also reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself—"each country has to make its own decisions when it comes to the awesome decision to engage in any kind of military action"—and he said "there is not a lot of daylight" between US and Israeli assessments on Iran's nuclear program, reports USA Today. Netanyahu said he is "absolutely convinced that the president is determined to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons." While he stressed Israel's right to act independently, Obama said there's still time for a diplomatic solution. The trip isn't expected to yield much in terms of concrete policy.


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 WAUKESHA -- 10-year-old Andrew Ounkham, a non-verbal boy with autism was found safe Monday, October 3rd after he wandered into a corn field near his home on Sunday. Ounkham was found by two Waukesha West High School students.

 Adam Lembke played in a volleyball match at Waukesha West Monday night -- but nothing he could've done on the court would've topped what he and his friend Connor Kubiak did Monday morning.

 "Actually, my family and I are really close friends with their family. I know my sister goes over to play with Andrew`s brother," Lembke said.

 Lembke was part of the massive search that began Sunday for 10-year-old Andrew Ounkham. Law enforcement officials continued that search overnight, and on Monday morning, neighbors showed up en masse at Waukesha West High School to continue the search.

 Lembke said he and Kubiak weren't sure whether they should go back out, since there were already so many volunteers, but Nate Kostolni said...

 "Couple more people couldn`t hurt at all -- so why don`t we just go out and try it?" Kostolni said.

 With school officials' blessing, the three teenagers were among those looking for Andrew Ounkham Monday.

 "Actually, I`m terrible with directions so I pretty much just followed Adam," Kubiak said.

 "I know where their house is. I know the general direction of where he went, so I decided there`s nobody looking over there. They`re all looking closer to West here," Lembke said.

 Sure enough, about a mile into the corn field...

 "We were just kind of walking, deciding where to go next and then we just saw him go around the corner," Lembke said.

 "Adam said 'call 911 right now!'" Kubiak said.

 CLICK the audio player below to listen to the 911 call that led authorities to Andrew Ounkham:

 "He was just walking and talking and laughing and stuff. I kept looking over at Adam, like, `what is happening right now?'" Kubiak said.

 As for Kostolni, he had split off with another friend.

 "I went and texted Adam and asked if him and Connor were the ones that found the kid and I got a text back saying `yeah we did it.` I should`ve stayed with them," Kostolni said.

 Lembke said while the attention they've gotten since the boy was found safe is pretty cool, he doesn't think they were heroic. He said he believes, with the amount of people out looking, someone was bound to find Andrew Ounkham.

 Lembke said he's just glad they were able to get to him when they did. ||||| CLOSE Volunteers join police Sunday in organizing a search for a 3-year-old boy missing since Saturday afternoon. The boy was found Sunday morning. USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

 A photo of the missing boy that police released to searchers. (Photo: Courtesy of Langlade County Sheriff's Department)

 DEERBROOK - Hundreds of volunteers joined police to search through the night and into Sunday for a 3-year-old boy who wandered away from his rural home north of Antigo Saturday afternoon.

 Becky Wolf of Antigo was one of those who turned out to search the fields and woods of central Langlade County. She saw a post on Facebook Saturday night and and joined the search party at 10 p.m., searching until 5 a.m Sunday before rejoining the search after a couple of hours' rest.

 Word spread quickly around Antigo Saturday night, and scores of folks turned out to help the effort, police said. More than 400 had signed up to help by the time the boy was located late Sunday morning, police said.

 The volunteer who found him, Tom Andraschko of Antigo, said he was in a party of about 70 men and women who were stretched out in a line across a field and had been working for more than two hours Sunday morning before they came upon the boy.

 Buy Photo Andraschko (Photo: Arielle Hines/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

 The 3-year-old was sitting cross-legged on the ground and obviously was terrified, Andraschko said. Volunteers erupted in cheers when they located him, but their concern quickly turned to the boy's health. He had been outdoors since early Saturday afternoon and was cold and wet but otherwise appeared unharmed.

 Andraschko said he volunteered to search because he himself is the father of 2-year-old twins and could imagine the horror of having one of them disappear. He would want others to help him if one of his went missing, he said, so he felt obligated to join the search.

 Police from Wausau, Tomahawk, Shawano and around Langlade County congregated at county highways C and H, where volunteers waited Sunday morning for search assignments. Police coordinated volunteers on the ground with air searches and dogs that were assisting.

 Pamela Becerra, owner of Neva Grocery and Gas, donated food and drinks to help feed the search party Saturday and Sunday. She said she didn't keep track of all the food she donated, but she knows she gave 200 sandwiches to volunteers Sunday morning. She also donated other snacks, such as granola bars and coffee. She said the idea of a small boy being lost and alone made her "sick," and she wanted to make sure the volunteers were taken care of. She said it's natural for people in a small community to help neighbors in need.

 The boy was playing outside when he wandered away from nearby family members and into a corn field, said Langlade County Sheriff Bill Greening. The field was at least 80 acres and the corn stalks were at least 7 feet high, but Greening, who has a grandchild around the same age of the boy, was determined to find him. He said several helicopters, drones and police dogs were used in the search, and additional resources from other departments were on the way when the boy was found. Some officers stayed on duty when their shifts ended and worked more than 24 hours in a row to help.

 The owners of a converted schoolhouse allowed police to use their home as a headquarters from which to coordinate the search, police said. Police said the boy was taken to a hospital for treatment.

 Wolf said searching in a corn field late at night was "creepy" and the search became frustrating at points. But she is proud of her community for coming through.

 "It's a blessing he is OK," Wolf said.

 Buy Photo Volunteers await assignments Sunday morning in the search for a 3-year-old boy near Antigo (Photo: Arielle Hines/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

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 Arielle Hines: ahines@wausau.gannett.com or 715-297-7518; on Twitter@theariellehines.

 Read or Share this story: http://wdhne.ws/2dR9mh0 ||||| By Craig Marx, Editor

 Langlade County Sheriff Bill Greening commended the volunteers and support staff on Monday that came to the aid of Dyton Logalbo, a three-old year child that went missing in a cornfield on Saturday afternoon in Langlade County.

 “[Their support] was incredible,” Greening told the Antigo Times. “It was amazing. I’ve seen a lot of situations like this before and it is truly amazing the amount of caring and compassion that our community provides without even the need for announcements for volunteers. The support they provided was instrumental in [Dyton’s] discovery.”

 The sheriff also noted that the use of social media was a big factor in helping get the word out about the alarming situation. Through the use of Facebook and traditional police scanners, the volunteers amassed totaled 100 civilians overnight until the early morning hours of Sunday and nearly 500 some workers later on that day.

 Cooperation was essential with outside law enforcement, and the surrounding communities did their part in helping rescue Logalbo. In addition to civilian volunteers, K9 units from Shawano and Eagle River arrived to help with the search.

 As described by Sheriff Greening, Dyton’s mother was outside with her children working on a garden at 2 pm on Saturday when she looked up and saw her son entering the cornfield. After an unsuccessful search of her own, she contacted the sheriff’s department. The authorities were not notified until around 6 pm, when deputies arrived on the scene and interviewed the mother.

 Town of Peck emergency personnel and the Rural Fire Control were brought to the scene along with members from the Antigo Fire Department and EMS. As social media erupted over the terrible situation, civilian volunteers began arriving on scene.

 Dyton was discovered by Tom Andrashcko around 10:30 am on Sunday morning and later taken to Aspirus Langlade Hospital for medical assistance.

 Though the situation was sad, the volunteers also expressed appreciation of their own – Jim Novak and Pam Becerra provided food and beverages to the volunteers as they tediously searched throughout the day. ||||| He was missing for nearly a full day, but 3-year-old Dyton Longalbo was found safe after hundreds of volunteers searched acres of cornfields in Wisconsin on Sunday. (Source: WAOW/CNN)

 DEERBROOK, WI (WAOW/CNN) - Hundreds of volunteers spent hours searching acres of cornfields Sunday.

 And almost a full day after 3-year-old Dyton Logalbo went missing, the search was over.

 “It took about two-and-a-half, three hours looking in the field, and we stumbled upon him,” said Tom Andraschko, who found the child safe and unharmed.

 Andraschko said after spending hours in the approximately 80 acres of corn, everything started to look the same. He couldn’t believe his eyes once he found the boy.

 “It didn’t really register, really, how amazing it was,” he said. “Just glad that he was sitting up and he looked safe and he was fine. He was just scared, very scared.”

 When Andraschko picked Dyton up, the child's legs were cold. He didn’t speak.

 “I kept real quiet because I figured he was ... still shaking from being alone all night,” he said.

 But it was not just the effort of one man that led to finding Dyton.

 More than 450 people registered with the Langlade County Sheriff Department early Sunday to help search the surrounding area.

 As a father of two, Andraschko said the decision to come and help was a no-brainer.

 “I asked my wife if she thought I should come this morning, if they need any help,” he said. “She said, ‘Well, if it were your kids, how many people would you want to come?’ So I came right away.”

 A terrifying moment for one small boy turned into a celebration of neighbors lending helping hands, putting on display a small dose of human compassion.

 “It was definitely a group effort,” Andraschko said. “Everybody pitched in and helped.”

 Copyright 2016 WAOW via CNN. All rights reserved.

Summary: – A 3-year-old boy lost for 20 hours in a cornfield where stalks reached 7-feet tall has been found safe and sound in Wisconsin. Dyton Logalbo was playing outside near his home around 2pm Saturday when his mom saw him wandering into the cornfield north of Antigo, reports the Wausau Daily Herald. She alerted authorities when she couldn't find him on her own. Police—who searched with helicopters, drones, and K9 units—didn't even need to ask for volunteers, per the Antigo Times. Unprompted, some 500 people signed up to search before Dyton was found Sunday morning, police say. Tom Andraschko says he was searching a section of the cornfield with 70 others around 10:30am when he found the toddler sitting cross-legged on the ground. He was cold, wet, and scared, but otherwise in good health, though he was taken to a local hospital as a precaution. "I asked my wife if she thought I should come this morning, if they need any help," Andraschko, a father of 2-year-old twins, told WAOW on Sunday. "She said, 'Well, if it were your kids, how many people would you want to come?' So I came right away." A sheriff praised the "caring and compassion" of the community for helping get Dyton home safely. Just as Dyton was found, however, authorities in Waukesha, Wis., began searching for a 10-year-old boy with autism who also disappeared into a cornfield. He was found safe about a mile into the field by two high school students on Monday morning, reports Fox 6.


South Africa’s justice department is intervening to prevent Oscar Pistorius’ early prison release with Justice Minister Michael Masutha seeking advice over the legality of a parole board decision to free the Olympic athlete on Friday.

 Under South African law, Pistorius is eligible for release under “correctional supervision”, having served a sixth of his sentence. But his intervention has come after The Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa petitioned the Justice Minister, opposing the Bladerunner’s release on parole, especially during Women’s Month.

 The decision of the parole board was outrageous and an insult to victims of abuse. — Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa

 Pistorius was due to be moved to house arrest on Friday after serving 10 months of his five-year sentence for manslaughter for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.

 Listen below to Justice Masutha speaking to 702's Xolani Gwala... ||||| JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Oscar Pistorius will not be freed on parole this Friday because the decision to do so was made without the right legal basis, the justice minister said on Wednesday, shocking the athlete's family who were preparing for his homecoming.

 Pistorius was expected to be released after serving 10 months of a five-year sentence for killing his model and law graduate girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013.

 Justice Minister Michael Masutha said in a statement that the parole board had decided to release Pistorius on parole even before the athlete had served a sixth of his sentence, as required by law.

 "It is therefore clear that there is no legal basis upon which such a decision was made ... one sixth of a five years sentence is 10 months and at the time the decision was made Mr. Pistorius had served only over six months of his sentence," Masutha said.

 The minister said he received a petition from the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa, opposing Pistorius' release on parole, saying it flouted the rules.

 A family member said he was shocked by the minister's decision, adding that the family had planned a "low key welcome" for Pistorius on Friday.

 "We are shocked and disappointed that Oscar won't be home this Friday," the family member, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

 Pistorius has admitted killing Steenkamp, 29, by firing four shots through the locked door of a toilet cubicle, saying he believed an intruder was hiding behind it.

 Judge Thokozile Masipa said during sentencing the state had failed to convince her of Pistorius' intent to kill when he fired. ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Pistorius' early release on Friday has been put on hold

 South Africa's justice minister has blocked the early release of athlete Oscar Pistorius from prison on Friday.

 He said the decision by the parole board to free the athlete after serving 10 months of his five-year sentence was premature and without legal basis.

 It could now take months for the board to review its decision, legal sources told the BBC.

 Pistorius was convicted of manslaughter last year after shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

 The Olympic athlete insists he mistook her for an intruder.

 He was due to be transferred from prison to house arrest on Friday, when he was expected to stay at his uncle's three-storey mansion in the capital, Pretoria.

 Under South African law, Pistorius is eligible for release under "correctional supervision", having served a sixth of his sentence.

 One of his relatives, who did not want to be named, told Reuters news agency they were "shocked and disappointed" at the news.

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Pistorius' girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was a lawyer, model and TV star

 In a statement, South Africa's Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the decision to free the athlete was taken prematurely.

 "One sixth of a five year sentence is 10 months and at the time the decision was made Mr Pistorius had served only over six months of his sentence," the statement said.

 Thursday would have been Ms Steenkamp's 32nd birthday.

 Her parents held a small ceremony for her close friends and supporters in her hometown of Port Elizabeth, throwing roses into the sea in her memory.

 Analysis: Milton Nkosi; BBC News; Johannesburg:

 The decision by Mr Masutha to put Oscar Pistorius' early release on hold has come as a complete shock, not just to the Pistorius family but to many people who follow legal issues here.

 According to the prison department, the double amputee was going to be released on Friday because this is South African law - all offenders convicted under the same law as Pistorius can be considered for correctional supervision once they have served at least one-sixth of their sentence.

 In other words it was not the prison's independent view to release the Paralympian but part of South African legal procedure.

 Many believe that this will merely cause a slight delay to his early release.

 But the intervention by Mr Masutha, who is a lawyer, could have implications for many other cases which are less prominent.

 The decision was taken after a petition to the minister by the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa, which includes the African National Congress Women's League, part of the governing party. It had described the athlete's early release as "outrageous" and "an insult" to victims of abuse.

 It seems as though his last-minute intervention was the result of this political pressure.

 Oscar Pistorius - in 60 seconds

 The making and unmaking of Oscar Pistorius

 This week, prosecutors filed court papers calling for the athlete's conviction to be converted to murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years. His defence team has a month to file its response.

 During sentencing, Judge Thokozile Masipa said the state had failed to prove Pistorius' intent to kill when he fired.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Tania Koen, a lawyer for Ms Steenkamp's parents Barry and June: "Ten months is not enough"

 The double amputee shot and killed Ms Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door at his Pretoria home, believing she was an intruder, he told his trial.

 Pistorius was born without the fibulas in both of his legs, and had surgery to amputate both below the knee while still a baby.

 He went on to become one of South Africa's best-known sports stars, and was the first amputee sprinter to compete against able-bodied athletes, at the 2012 London Olympics. ||||| South Africa commemorates Women’s Month in August as a tribute to the more than 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 in protest against the extension of Pass Laws to women. The Government of South Africa declared August women’s month and 9 August is celebrated annually as Women’s Day.

 Women's Day 2015

 Women’s Day (9 August) was hosted in Sasolburg, Free State. The theme for 2015 is Women United in Moving South Africa Forward.

 Watch the video of President Jacob Zuma's address at the event:

 Women's Month 2015

 The 2015 Women’s Month is a build-up towards the 60th Anniversary of the Women’s march and is aimed at:

 educating the nation about the role women played in the emancipation of the continent

 documenting the correct stories of heroines of South Africa

 celebrating women who have made it in all spheres of life in the continent

 honouring and celebrating the girls of 1976 and recognise the role played by young women in the liberation struggle

 uniting South African women

 celebrating the struggles of the women over the decades and a rejuvenation of our commitment to strive for a society that is truly non-racial, non-sexist, united, democratic and free of all forms of discrimination

 remembering the history of Women's struggle in South Africa and to continue writing our history as it has to evolved.

 Every week of August 2015will focus on a specific sub-theme:

 Week 1: Celebrating Women in Fashion

 The week will be dedicated to celebrating profiling women in the fashion industry who contribute to job creation.

 Various media platforms will be utilised where we will have a collage of these women and their contribution in dressing the nation. The SABC will partner with the Department of Women in this programme.

 Week 2: Celebrating Women in Film

 The department in partnership with the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) will have two screenings produced or directed by women or telling stories of women. The screenings will target young people and will take place as follows:

 10 August 2015: Jabulani

 14 August 2016: Kwamashu

 The screenings will be extended to other provinces as we move towards the 60th Anniversary.

 Week 3: The fight against human trafficking and labour exploitation of women

 The week will focus on the fight against trafficking of women and children as well as the exploitation of women from our neighbouring countries with specific focus on Lesotho women. South Africa will partner with Lesotho government and the following activities are planned for the week:

 21 August 2015: Symposium focusing on labour exploitation and related issues.

 22 August 2015: A symbolic march at the Maseru border gate where both South African and Lesotho women will give their memorandum of demands to authorities representing their countries. The march will call for an end to human trafficking and request more stringent measure of combating trafficking of women and children.

 22 August 2015: The march will culminate into a rally on a farm where the leadership of both countries will have an opportunity to address women. The rally will be held at Mooderpoort farm, the home of Mantsopa.

 Week 4: Economic Empowerment (Financial Inclusion of women)

 In line with the African Union themes of the African Women’s Decade and the new mandate of the Department of Women’s socio-economic empowerment, the department will host high level engagements on the mechanisms and modalities for women’s financial inclusion in the economy and all sectors of the country.

 4-5 September 2015: Trade Fair and Exhibition of Women in South Africa and Zimbabwe to be held in Musina, Limpopo. Women from both countries will showcase and sell their products from clothes to crafts.

 9 September 2015: Techno-girl roundtable – The department will host The New Age business breakfast focusing on the empowerment of young women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The business breakfast will culminate into a high level panel discussion on how to strengthen the current Techno-Girl job-shadowing programme

 Advances made since 1994

 Great strides have been made since 1994 to improve the status of women.

 Prior to 1994, the South African Parliament had a mere 2,7% representation of women, and following the first democratic elections, women representation in the National Assembly stood at 27,7%. In 1999 that figure increased to 30% and then to 32.7% in 2004. After the 2009 national elections women representation reached 42%. Currently women ministers comprise 41% of the Cabinet, women deputy ministers make up 47% of the total number of deputy ministers and there is a 41% representation of women in the National Assembly. The Women in Politics 2015 Map launched by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women shows how South Africa fares in relation to the rest of the world.

 Furthermore, government policies and programmes have improved the living conditions of women. In 1997 the Office on the Status of Women (OSW) was established in the Presidency to steer the national gender programme and championed the development of the National Policy Framework for Women Empowerment and Gender Equality that was approved by Cabinet in 2000. Subsequently, similar structures were established in the Premier’s offices. In May 2009 the President pronounced on the establishment a Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD). In May 2014 the President evolved the structure to a dedicated Ministry for Women in the Presidency as a way of elevating women’s issues and interests to lead, coordinate and oversee the transformation agenda on women’s socio-economic empowerment, rights and equality through mainstreaming, monitoring and evaluation.

 Since the advent of democracy and freedom South Africa has seen a number of women taking up leadership positions in areas previously dominated by men. One of the success stories of our democracy is that of the representation of women in political and decision-making positions. Involving women in governance processes constitutes one of South Africa’s globally acclaimed success stories.

 The election of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in July 2012 as the first women in Africa to chair the African Union Commission; the appointment of Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Deputy President of the country, as the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women; and the positioning of other South African women such as Ms Geraldine Frazer-Moleketi, Special Gender Envoy to the African Development Bank; Ms Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on Violence against women, its causes and consequences; and Judge Navi Pillay as the High Commissioner for Human Rights and formerly as a judge in the International Criminal Court (ICC) is an indication of the impact that women in decision-making have in winning the trust and confidence of citizens in South Africa, on the continent and internationally.

 Currently, women are heading portfolios such as the Commissioner of Police; the Public Protector; CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; the Independent Electoral Commission; Governor of the Reserve Bank, the South African Law Reform Commission, and the first female Deputy Auditor-General, among others.

 Prior to 1994, South Africa had only one woman Judge, whilst today women judges make up almost 28% of the Judiciary. Women are making inroads into business leadership and heading up global giants in the country such as the head of the ABSA bank. Women own conglomerates in the country with some business women being millionaires. Women also can be found as chairpersons of corporate boards in the country, while others are entering and leading in previously male dominated territories, for example, the head of the Palaeontology Department in the University of Cape Town is a woman, and the South African Airways (SAA) now has women pilots, some flying international bound flights. Women are in the defence force, navy and air force in South Africa. In fact women make up almost 40% of the Senior Management Service in the public service and overall women comprise more than 50% of employees in the Public Service.

 Women have even entered previously male dominated areas in the corporate world, and currently constitute 3.6% of CEO positions, 5.5% of chairperson positions, 17.1% of directorships and 21.4% of executive management positions.

 Origin of Women's Month and Day

 The historic march in 1956 was a turning point in the role of women in the struggle for freedom and society at large. Since that eventful day, women from all walks of life became equal partners in the struggle for a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.

 The march was coordinated by the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw) led by four women: Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams De Bruyn. These leaders delivered petitions to the then Prime Minister JG Strijdom’s office in the Union Buildings. Women throughout the country had put their names to these petitions indicating their anger and frustration at having their freedom of movement restricted by the hated official passes.

 Women’s month is a tribute not only to the thousands of women who marched on that day in 1956, but also a tribute to the pioneers of the women’s movement in this country, dating back to 1913, when women like Charlotte Maxeke led the way in establishing the ANC Women’s League and encouraging women to engage in the struggle for freedom. Pioneers include Cissy, Jaynab and Amina Gool who were amongst the leaders of the National Liberation League and the Non-European United Front of the 1930s. The names of Ray Alexander Simons, Elizabeth Mafekeng and Elizabeth Abrahams will always be associated with the struggles of women.

 In the 1940s Amina Pahad and Gadijah Christopher, who were amongst the first volunteers to occupy the site of the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign on Umbilo Road in Durban cannot go unnoticed. Women’s month also service to recall and recognise the work of Dora Tamana, Winifred Siqwana, Ida Mntwana, Bertha Gxowa, Florence Matomela and other stalwarts of the 1950s, who led militant women’s formation for the rights of workers and the rights of women.

 There were also the women who formed the Black Sashand who were the first to protest against the disenfranchisement of the Coloured voters during the 1950s. The Coloured voters played an important role in the united front of anti-apartheid forces that developed in the last three decades of apartheid.

 Government has made significant progress in empowering women in the political, public and educational spheres, but the marginalisation of poor women severely compromises progress.

 Speeches, statements and advisories on Women's Month

 Women's Month events

 Other events ||||| Play Facebook

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 PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa – The mother of Reeva Steenkamp, the model fatally shot by Oscar Pistorius, says she is still seeking “justice” over the killing even as the Olympian's release from prison was delayed at the last moment.

 June Steenkamp spoke of her ongoing “sadness” at losing her daughter just two days before he had been due to switch to house arrest as part of his five-year sentence for manslaughter.

 "As the story unwinds I want people to remember that somebody actually died"

 Pistorius was expected to be released Friday after serving 10 months in prison. However, South Africa's Department of Justice said Wednesday that the parole board’s earlier decision to free him was made "prematurely" and without legal basis.

 In South Africa, prisoners must serve one-sixth of their sentence, or 10 months in this case, to be considered for release. The parole board’s decision was taken after only six months.

 The government's intervention came on what would have been Reeva Steenkamp’s 32nd birthday.

 "It was a shock,'' Steenkamp told TODAY's Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview early Thursday. "I'm very, very pleased about this. It's an important thing for other people, other women."

 "I'm not worried about if it's a short delay,'' she said. "It's been set now, the precedent for him to wait now until the time is right."

 Reeva Steenkamp. Mike Holmes / Gallo via Getty Images, file

 Hours before the government's intervention, Steenkamp and her family visited the beach in the Summerstrand suburb of Port Elizabeth, where Reeva's ashes were scattered.

 “As the story unwinds I want people to remember that somebody actually died,” she told NBC News on the beach. “That she died, she lost her life. This isn’t just about [Pistorius]. We have to learn to live without her and it’s very difficult. I don’t think it’s ever going to be possible. She was too much … belonging to us, with us, loving us and we loved here — it’s just …it’s a bond that can never be broken.”

 She added: “Today we come to wish her happy birthday and just remember and celebrate who she was and how wonderful she was.

 “To think that she could have done such wonderful things but her life was taken away. That’s what we’re doing now, celebrating her life even though it was short it was amazing.”

 On what would have been Reeva's 32nd birthday, the Steenkamp family threw flowers into the water where her ashes were scattered. Chapman Bell / NBC News

 June Steenkamp said she still felt “sadness,” adding: “A bit part of our life has been taken away. It’s very sad.”

 Asked about a possible appeal in the case, she said: “It’s not over yet, the appeal is coming and we have to leave it to the justice system now.”

 She said she just wanted “justice” in the case. “That’s all I want. Justice.”

 Pistorius’ former lawyer, Wergele McKenzie, said the athlete was still young enough to redeem himself in the eyes of society.

 “We're torn in two because on the one hand there's a family that suffered great loss and we want to support them and we have empathy with them,” he told ITV News. “But on the other hand we would still like to believe, he's still a young man, there's still hope for him, he can be rehabilitated and he still has something to give to society.” ||||| Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 South Africa’s justice minister on Wednesday intervened to delay the early release of Oscar Pistorius, the imprisoned Olympic athlete convicted of killing his girlfriend — 48 hours before he was scheduled to begin serving the rest of his five-year term under house arrest.

 The decision by the justice minister, Michael Masutha, was a surprise. It contradicted an announcement in June by the corrections department’s parole authorities that Mr. Pistorius would be transferred from prison to house arrest on Friday.

 Mr. Pistorius, 28, will have served one-sixth of his sentence by then, which under South African law makes him eligible for early release. Yet Mr. Masutha said the decision to release him should not have been made before he had served the one-sixth minimum.

 In an interview on South Africa’s 702 radio station, Mr. Masutha said the parole authorities might have “misinterpreted the law and been in haste in taking a decision prematurely."

 It was not immediately clear whether lawyers for Mr. Pistorius would take legal action in an attempt to invalidate Mr. Masutha’s delay order.

 It also was unclear why Mr. Masutha waited until Wednesday to issue the order, since he presumably had known about the parole announcement for a few months. But he suggested in the radio interview that anger by women’s groups may have brought the issue to his direct attention. The Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa had petitioned the minister to protest Mr. Pistorius’s release, especially during the country’s Women’s Month.

 Mr. Pistorius, a double-amputee athlete known as the Blade Runner because of his prosthetic legs, shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a model and aspiring lawyer, in February 2013, and was prosecuted in a globally televised trial.

 He was convicted of culpable homicide, the South African equivalent of manslaughter, after his lawyers successfully argued that he mistook Ms. Steenkamp for a burglar hiding in the locked bathroom of his Pretoria home.

 Earlier this week, prosecutors filed an appeal of the culpable homicide verdict, arguing that Mr. Pistorius murdered Ms. Steenkamp — who would have turned 32 on Wednesday — after an argument.

 That appeal is to be heard in November. A murder conviction could incarcerate Mr. Pistorius for at least 15 years.

Summary: – Looks like Oscar Pistorius may have a slight delay before he gets to chillax in mansion prison. The Paralympian's early release tomorrow has been blocked by Michael Masutha, South Africa's justice minister, who says that while the country's law dictates releasing inmates after they've served one-sixth of their sentence—in Pistorius' case, 10 months into his five-year sentence, which would be tomorrow—he thinks the release isn't legal because the decision to release the athlete was made only six months into his prison stay, the BBC reports. His decision yesterday came on what would have been Reeva Steenkamp's 32nd birthday, notes NBC News. "As the story unwinds I want people to remember that somebody actually died," her mom, June Steenkamp, says. "That she died, she lost her life." Per the New York Times, Masutha said during a Talk Radio 702 interview that perhaps parole officials "misinterpreted the law and been in haste in taking a decision prematurely." One reason Masutha may have waited until the 11th hour to bring this up, the Times notes: pressure during South Africa's Women's Month from women's rights groups. Legal sources tell the BBC this could delay Pistorius' release for months. Meanwhile, one of his family members tells Reuters, "We are shocked and disappointed that Oscar won't be home this Friday."


It could have all been so simple. Shortly before his death, the son of art collector Hildebrand Gurlitt willed his massive art collection - which is still is police custody - to a Swiss museum. The hundreds of paintings and drawings, which include Nazi-looted art that once belonged to Jewish collectors, would be relocated to a legally neutral country.

 In Gurlitt's trove, the so-called "degenerate art" - works by Jewish artists deemed culturally unacceptable by the Nazis - would be permanently loaned to German museums. In addition, the German task force, under the direction of attorney Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, would be permitted to continue its provenience research, in order to determine which items from the Gurlitt collection had been looted during the Nazi period and should be returned to their Jewish heirs.

 When the more than 1,500 works, worth millions of euros, were uncovered in Gurlitt's Munich residence and his Salzburg house in fall of 2013, questions arose that poked deep into Germany's shameful past and renewed the debate of how Nazi-looted art and artifacts should be legally dealt with three-quarters of a century later.

 The Gurlitt case, however, seemed to be neatly resolved and shelved - until German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported Monday that Cornelius Gurlitt's will may not be legally binding.

 Diagnosis: paranoia

 Cornelius Gurlitt died in May at the age of 81

 According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung," a psychiatric examination indicates that Gurlitt was not mentally stable enough to complete a valid will. Helmut Hausner, lawyer and head physician at the Center for Psychiatry in Cham, in Bavaria, compiled the 48 page report. Cornelius Gurlitt allegedly suffered from "paranoia," which voids his "freedom to decide" while composing his will.

 Gurlitt is said to have felt that he's been hunted by Nazis since the 1960s, believing that they wanted to steal the paintings he'd inherited from his father. According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung," Hausner based his findings on documents and letters from Gurlitt's estate.

 Will not to be contested

 The psychiatric examination was commissioned by two of Gurlitt's legal heirs. Cousins Dietrich Gurlitt and Uta Werner were not mentioned in the will, though they've said they don't plan to contest the document.

 The Museum of Fine Arts Bern also has no plans to obtain a certificate of inheritance, according to the news report. "Without an application for a certificate of inheritance, there is no reason in the case of a notarized will for the court to review the competency of the deceased to write a will," wrote the "Süddeutsche Zeitung."

 The Bern museum plans to announce on November 26 whether it will accept the inheritance of Cornelius Gurlitt, who passed away on May 6. Should the museum take the collection, the psychiatric report may be quickly forgotten. ||||| BERN, Switzerland—A small art museum in the Swiss capital is preparing to take possession of more than 1,000 artworks bequeathed to it by the son of one of Hitler’s main art dealers, unshackling Germany from an embarrassing burden that has weighed on it for a year.

 Barring any last-minute legal objections, the Kunstmuseum Bern is expected to decide as early as Saturday to accept the estate of the late Cornelius Gurlitt, according to three people familiar with the museum board’s discussions.

 ...

Summary: – A small Swiss museum is ready to take on a huge collection of art looted by the Nazis—and the mammoth task of finding the rightful owners of the paintings. Insiders tell the Wall Street Journal that the Kunstmuseum Bern is preparing to accept the $1.3 billion collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, who died in May—not long after his hoard was discovered at his Munich home—and unexpectedly made the museum his sole heir. If the museum does accept the collection, heirs of Holocaust victims could receive restitution in a matter of days. Gurlitt, the son of Hitler's art dealer, made a deal with German authorities to return art known to have been looted to present-day heirs. Sources say Gurlitt decided to leave the collection, much of which had been deemed "degenerate" by the Nazis, to the Swiss because he was unhappy about how he was treated by German authorities. But the German government, which has been under pressure to return stolen artwork, will be glad to see the scandal end, the Journal notes. One potential hiccup could be a psychiatric report that found Gurlitt was in no fit state to make a will—he was paranoid and believed Nazis had been hunting him since the 1960s to recover the art, according to reports in the German press—but it's not likely to be an issue unless the museum decides against taking the collection, causing the art to be distributed among Gurlitt's distant relatives, Deutsche Welle reports.


Earlier this week, Placed CEO David Shim notified me that the company’s “Insights” product would be launching today. As we wrote back in October, this is a key piece of the “big data meets local” trend to provide analytics around physical world locations.

 In that respect, the best way to think about Placed Insights is comScore for the offline world. Much like comscore, Placed gets its data from an opt-in panel of mobile users. It has accelerated that effort by paying app developers to integrate opt-in location tracking to their apps.

 After collecting all this data for a few years, the result has been 13 billion locations measured from about 70, 000 panelists. As we’ve discussed, this can be valuable for retailers, brands, advertisers or app developers to measure user behavior and build strategy accordingly.

 From our previous writeup:

 Users of a given app can be measured to see that in the aggregate, 8% are likely to be near a McDonalds or 12% are likely to be near a Starbucks. This has marketing implications for these chains, as well as their competitors or complimentary products. According to Shim, Placed offers this data for free, and will begin to monetize after an ecosystem is formed around its use. There are also many upsell possibilities such triangulating different data sets to discern deeper levels of understanding of user behavior.

 To illustrate what Insights is capable of, today’s launch comes with a few data nuggets. Check them out below, and more to come as we follow Placed and the overall developing “location analytics” space. It will come into play in location based mobile ad targeting among other things.

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 ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was:

 - Slash pages from every domain on the web:

 -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links)

 -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain

 - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph

Summary: – Just how popular are the golden arches? So popular that nearly half of US consumers visited them last month, according to a new study spotted by the Consumerist. The study, from the new Placed Insights service, sought to determine which businesses Americans visit most. Fast food dominates the list, but McDonald's is in a class of its own, with 49% visiting in March. Here's the top 10: McDonald's (49%) Walmart (38.8%) Subway (37.8%) Burger King (24.3%) Starbucks (23.9%) Wendy's (22.8%) Walgreens (22.7%) CVS (18.9%) Taco Bell (18.2%) Target (14.2%) There were some other surprises further down the list as well, like GameStop coming in at No. 12 with 12.8%, or RadioShack (No. 14, 12.1%) trouncing Best Buy (No. 35). And check out Dollar Tree; the unassuming discount store is No. 18, with just more than one in 10 Americans visiting last month. The data comes from Placed's mobile users on an opt-in basis, explains the Kelsey Group, which describes it as "comScore for the offline world." The data came from 70,000 volunteers.