HIGHLIGHTS-Leaders' comments at EU-Turkey summit

Nov 29 Leaders of the European Union aim to sign an agreement with Turkey in Brussels on Sunday that offers Ankara cash and closer ties with the EU in return for Turkish help in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.

Here are some of the comments of the leaders:

FRENCH PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE

"There has to be an agreement that allows us to implement an action plan between the European Union and Turkey so that refugees can be received in Turkey, nearer their countries of origin, so that Europe can help Turkey, so that Turkey can live up to its commitments and borders can be controlled.

"This is in everyone's interest."

TURKISH PRIME MINISTER AHMET DAVUTOGLU

"Today is a historic day in our accession process to the EU. Twenty nine heads of states and governments will be meeting and having a Turkish-EU summit."

"It's a very historic day to re-energise our accession process as well as discuss tensions, the latest developments in Europe and around Europe."

"I am thankful to all European leaders for this new beginning."

IRISH PRIME MINISTER ENDA KENNY

"My understanding is that a deal can and will be reached ... The feeling ... is that this can be concluded this evening."

On Turkey-Russia tensions over Syria: "It's an issue of enormous concern."

EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF FEDERICA MOGHERINI

"Turkey comes out of a long electoral transition. Now we have a government that is there to stay for some years and it is important for us to have a full-fledged dialogue with them on all the relevant issues.

"Migration and the refugee crisis is one but also others, including the revitalisation of the accession talks... this comes together with new investments from the Turkish side in basic fundamentals like human rights, media freedom and, I would like to stress it in particular, the need to restart the peace process with the Kurdish.

"It is important to revitalise it and the European Union will give all the support to restart the peace process with the Kurds.

"From today onwards, we will also, I will personally, work on a high-level dialogue with Turkey comprising all the different and sometimes difficult issues we have on the table with them -- all of them, none exclusions."

On Russia-Turkey tensions over Syria: "...to make sure that this doesn't affect the political perspectives we have finally found (on Syria)... It would be a terrible mistake if out of the tensions on the ground, that can be very high and very difficult to manage, we cancel or we downgrade the level of diplomatic and political engagement."

EUROPEAN COUNCIL DONALD TUSK

"We have reached an agreement which I hope will be accepted.

"This summit is about wider dimensions, namely re-energising our relations with Turkey including the accession process.

"Let us not us not be naive though. Turkey is not the only key to resolving the migration crisis. The important one is our responsibility and duty to protect our external border. We cannot outsource this obligation to any third country.

"Without control on our external borders, Schengen will become history."

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

"We will agree on the EU Turkey action plan today.

"This plan will make clear that we have to work together more closely with Turkey for a number of reasons - just think of the civil war in Syria, the fight against Islamic State or the illegal migration.

"One main part of this EU-Turkey action plan will be how we can replace illegal migration by legal migration, how we can improve the situation of refugees within Turkey.

"The summit is about negotiating a broader agenda with Turkey and obviously about questions of the EU accession process, the opening of new chapters. It is an open accession process, we don't speak about the result, but open new chapters.

"We plan to have regular meetings to talk about progress in the implementation of this agenda."

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER

"I expect that we will find an agreement today on stemming the refugee influx from Turkey via Greece to Europe. We need Turkey for this."

BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER CHARLES MICHEL

"I will not write a blank cheque for Turkey."

GREEK PRIME MINISTER ALEXIS TSIPRAS

"I am confident that we will be able to make important steps regarding Turkey's accession process but, at the same time, we should be certain that Turkey and Turkish authorities will do whatever is necessary to reduce the migrant and refugee flows." (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Robin Emmott, Gabriela Baczynska, Sabine Siebold)

Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooting Is Part Of A Frightening Trend

A gunman opened fire in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Friday, the latest in a string of attacks at the health care provider's clinics this year.

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, who surrendered to authorities after an hourslong standoff, appears to have been motivated by opposition to abortion. Abortion clinics have long been the targets of violence, including bombings, anthrax scares and mass blockades. This year alone, arsonists attacked four Planned Parenthood clinics in Washington, California, Illinois and Louisiana. 

In October, NARAL Pro-Choice America launched a petition urging the FBI to investigate the arson attacks, stating that “they’re perpetrated by an extreme minority that’s committed to ruling through fear and intimidation” and urging the FBI to treat them with the gravity warranted by domestic terrorism.

“We can’t wait until one more patient, doctor or nurse is hurt or killed before we say enough is enough. It’s time for an investigation to get to the bottom of this,” the group said.

Attacks on clinics are not always violent, though they are often threatening, designed to sow fear and to make it harder for abortion providers and clinic workers to do their jobs. In Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism, David S. Cohen and Krysten Connen detail the many ways in which clinics have been attacked or threatened in the last several decades:

Extremists have also thrown butyric acid into clinics, glued clinic locks shut, locked themselves into clinic property using items such as bicycle locks or chains, drilled holes into clinic roofs so that the clinic floods, invaded clinics, vandalized clinics, made threatening phone calls, tried to persuade patients to go to fake clinics, put spikes in driveways, talked outside clinics about bomb-making chemicals, laid down on sidewalks, jumped on cars, camped out in front of clinics for multiple-day stretches, and sent decoy patients into clinics to disrupt business.

Cohen told The Huffington Post that Friday’s shooting was on the extreme end of the obstacles that abortion providers and clinic workers face on a daily basis. “The normal part of being an abortion provider is living an working in fear, and today is an example of why,” he said. “Thankfully these things don’t happen every day but they do happen, and because they happen, abortion providers have to live their lives and go to work knowing that they’re in danger.”

One of the most high-profile examples of violence against an abortion provider is the 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas. Tiller’s clinic had been the target of numerous acts of sabotage and violence, including a shooting in which Tiller was hit in both arms.

Cohen also noted that if some of the people who were wounded in the Colorado Springs shooting were patients, then the attack represents a shift in anti-abortion violence. On Saturday night, police were unwilling to ascribe a clear anti-abortion motive to Dear's actions, but multiple officials familiar with the investigation described the attack as politically motivated.

“The patients have suffered from blockades and from being harassed by protestors, but this is new,” he said. “If it is true that it’s patients that are being injured, this is new.” He compared the day’s events to the 1998 bombing of an Alabama abortion clinic; that attack also occurred while the clinic was seeing patients, and was timed for when the clinic opened in the morning.

Though Cohen would not reveal if he had interviewed abortion providers or clinic workers from the Colorado Springs clinic for his book, he described the climate in which they practice reproductive health care.

“It’s a very conservative part of Colorado, and Colorado has some very extreme anti-abortion folks,” he said. 

This most recent attack happened against a backdrop of increased hostility against Planned Parenthood, the result of a series of undercover videos that purport to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of fetal tissue. The videos have triggered renewed calls for the organization to be defunded, as well as a five-hour grilling of Planned Parenthood President and CEO Cecile Richards by a congressional select committee.

Friday's shooting left one police officer and two civilians dead. 

“To think that this is medical care in 2015 in the U.S. is horrifying,” Cohen said. “This is how terrorism works. These incidents don’t happen often, but when they do, they make people fear for their lives.”

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A suspect is in police custody following an hours-long shooting standoff at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, where at least one police officer and two civilians were killed Friday.

“The perpetrator is in custody,” Mayor John Suthers declared just after 5 p.m. Mountain time — more than five hours after an active shooter was first reported at the health-care clinic, spawning confusion that lasted through the afternoon over whether the gunman was at large or holed up at the medical facility with staff and patients.

Police were trying to determine the suspect’s identity and his motive after his capture at the clinic. They said the man was armed with a long gun and also brought into the building several “items” that could have been explosive devices.

Police described the gunman as a stocky, bearded white male wearing a trench coat.

Besides the three deaths, at least four other police officers and five civilians were injured. ­Authorities said those individuals were all in good condition

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs said the officer who was killed was Garrett Swasey, 44, who had been with the department for six years and responded to the initial reports of an active shooter.

President Obama was briefed on the situation, a White House official said. Local police were joined at the scene by state investigators and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI.

Health centers associated with Planned Parenthood have been the target of threats and violence because of the organization’s role in providing abortions and lobbying for reproductive rights. Abortion rights groups say threats against abortion providers rose sharply this summer in the wake of anundercover “sting” mounted by an antiabortion group that filmed one of its videos at a clinic in Denver.

At least four Planned Parenthood clinics have been targeted with arson since the videos were released. The increase in threats has led abortion rights groups to increase cooperation with local police and the FBI.

“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the brave law enforcement officers who put themselves in harm’s way in Colorado Springs,” Cecile Richards, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful for their heroism in helping to protect all women, men and young people as they access basic health care in this country.”

Earlier, Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said in an interview on CNN that she believed all the staff members and patients of the Planned Parenthood clinic were safe.

“We’re very pleased that our own security systems were operating at top-notch,” she said. “Our staff were able to monitor our internal cameras and actually assist the local law enforcement folks to understand what was happening inside the center as it was happening.”

Babul - Video Dailymotion

Babul - Video Dailymotion

Police report 'active shooter' near Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs

(CNN)[Breaking news alert, posted at 3:38 p.m. ET Friday]

A shooter who opened fire near a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado, remains on the loose, police said Friday. "We don't have the suspect yet and we do consider this still an active situation," Lt. Catherine Buckley told reporters. It's possible there could be an additional shooter at large, she said.

[Breaking news alert, posted at 3:27 p.m. ET Friday]

At least three officers were injured in a shooting incident Friday near the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Commander Kirk Wilson with the Colorado Springs Police Department told reporters. Wilson said that police were still in the process of trying to eliminate the threat.

Officials at hospitals in the area said they were expecting the arrival of four patients, one of whom had a gunshot wound to the arm.

[Previous story, posted at 3:09 p.m. ET Friday]

A shopping center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was on lockdown Friday as police searched for a shooter near a Planned Parenthood facility there.

There's at least one shooter in the area, police Sgt. Kevin Miyakusu told CNN, and it's unclear if there are any injuries.

"Right now we don't know if there are any hostages," he said. "It is an ongoing situation."

Brigitte Wolfe, who said she works in the area of shooting, told CNN that she saw about five officers behind a building with their guns drawn, as well as about three SWAT vehicles and roughly seven police cars from her vantage point in a strip mall that's across the street from the Planned Parenthood. A grocery store and bank are nearby, Wolfe noted.

Miyakusu said he didn't know of any injuries, adding that police are only aware of a single shooter.

"It is a very fluid situation," he said.
Photos taken by Kody Fisher, a reporter with CNN affiliate KXRM, showed an ambulance and, in another picture. at least two police officers crouched behind a patrol car an ambulance at one intersection.

Colorado Springs police tweeted that the shooting took place on Centennial Boulevard. A newspaper in the city, The Gazette, reported that traffic was shut down in both directions on that road and that customers were told to stay put in a nearby grocery store and shops.

That sentiment was echoed by Colorado Springs police, who warned around 12:20 p.m. (2:20 p.m. ET) that the area was "not secure" that those in a nearby shopping center should "shelter in place."

At a grocery store in the shopping center, an intercom announcement told shoppers not to leave.

The city, in the central part of the Colorado, has more than 400,000 residents.

It was not immediately clear whether Planned Parenthood was the target of the shooting.

Planned Parenthood is a national health care provider that delivers reproductive health care and sex education to women and men throughout the United States. The organization runs nearly 700 health centers throughout the United States, according to its website.

The group says each year 2.7 million people in the United States visit its health centers for health care services and information.

Tensions escalate between Turkey and Russia

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia not to "play with fire", following reports Turkish businessmen had been detained in Russia,

Russia, meanwhile, has said it is to suspend visa-free travel with Turkey.             

Relations between the former Cold War antagonists are at their lowest in recent memory after Turkey shot down a Russian jet near the Syrian border on Tuesday.

Russia has threatened economic retaliation, a response Erdogan has dismissed as emotional and indecorous.             

The incident has proved a distraction for the West, which is looking to build support for the US-led fight against the so-called Islamic State militant group in Syria.

The nearly five-year-old Syrian civil war has been complicated by Russian air strikes in defence of President Bashar al-Assad.             

Turkey, which has long sought Mr Assad's removal, has extensive trade ties with Russia, which could come under strain.

Mr Erdogan condemned reports that some Turkish businessmen had been detained for visa irregularities while attending a trade fair in Russia.

"It is playing with fire to go as far as mistreating our citizens who have gone to Russia," Mr Erdogan told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, in northeast Turkey.

"We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia ... We don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way."

He said he may speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a climate summit in Paris next week.

Mr Putin has so far refused to contact Mr Erdogan because Turkey does not want to apologise for the downing of the jet, a Putin aide said.

Mr Erdogan has said Turkey deserves the apology because its airspace was violated.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this afternoon Russia would suspend its visa-free regime with Turkey as of 1 January, which could affect Turkey's tourism industry.

Turkey's seaside resorts are among the most popular holiday destinations for Russians, who make up Turkey's largest number of tourist arrivals after Germany.

An association of Russian defence factories, which includes the producers of Kalashnikov rifles, Armata tanks and Book missile systems, has recommended its members suspend buying materials from Turkey, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

That could damage contracts worth hundreds of millions of euro.             

Russia's agriculture ministry has already increased checks on food and agriculture imports from Turkey, in one of the first public moves to curb trade.                           

Mr Erdogan said that Turkey did not go looking to shoot down a Russian jet but acted after it strayed into Turkish air space.

It was, he said, an "automatic reaction" to standing instructions given to the military. Moscow insists the jet never left Syrian air space.

Lower house speaker Sergei Naryshkin called the incident an "intentional murder" of its soldiers, saying Russia had the right to mount a military response.

The incident has worsened the outlook for the Syrian peace process, dashing recent optimism following the Group of 20 meeting in Turkey where US President Barack Obama held an informal meeting with Mr Putin.             

"It certainly did not help," UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said.

However, Mr Putin did ask France to draw up a map of where groups fighting Islamic State militants operate in Syria in order not to bomb them, France's foreign minister said.

Chicago protesters march as police release video of officer shooting teen

Chicago (CNN)Protesters took to the streets of Chicago late Tuesday after police released a graphic dash-cam video showing an officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

McDonald was killed in October 2014. The city's mayor has called for peace.

"I believe this is a moment that can build bridges of understanding rather than become a barrier of misunderstanding. I understand that the people will be upset and will want to protest when they see this video," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. "We as a city must rise to this moment."

Chicago has been preparing for protests in advance of the video's release, which was ordered by a judge to happen no later than Wednesday.

McDonald was a black teenager. The officer who shot him, Jason Van Dyke, is white.

He was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in McDonald's death and is being held without bond.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy acknowledged that residents "have a right to be angry."

Soon after the video's release, a group of protesters began marching, chanting "16 shots" and "We got to fight back!" McDonald died after being shot 16 times.

The NAACP said that McDonald's family and the community deserve action.

"People have a right to be angry, people have a right to protest, people have a right to free speech," McCarthy said. "But they do not have a right to commit criminal acts."

Murder charges

Van Dyke, who turned himself in to authorities Tuesday, is no longer being paid by the Police Department. Until Tuesday, he still worked for the department in a "limited duty position" as investigators probed the October 20, 2014, death.

"It is my determination that this defendant's actions -- of shooting Laquan McDonald when he did not pose an immediate threat of great bodily harm or death, and his subsequent actions of shooting Laquan McDonald while he lay on the ground after previously being struck by gunfire --- were not justified and they were not a proper use of deadly force by this police officer," Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said to announce charges against the officer.

An attorney for Jason Van Dyke says his client didn't do anything wrong.

Her announcement happened one day before the city's deadline to release video that shows the shooting. Until last week, officials had resisted such a release, fearing it could jeopardize investigations. Others said it could spur major protests in reaction to footage that even Van Dyke's attorney admits is "graphic, disturbing and difficult to watch."

Alvarez said the deadline moved up the timing of her announcement but did not dictate her decision to charge the officer with first-degree murder. She also defended the time it took her office to investigate by saying the case is complicated.

"Maintaining public safety is my No. 1 job, and I do not want the public to view this video without knowing this very important context that with these charges we are bringing a full measure of justice that this demands," she said.

One of Russian pilots shot down by Turkey is dead: military

MOSCOW - One of two pilots aboard a Russian war plane shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was killed by fire from the ground after he parachuted from the craft, the Russian military said, citing what it said was preliminary information.

“The plane fell in Syrian territory, four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the border. The crew ejected. According to preliminary information, one of the pilot died after being fired upon from the ground,” military spokesman General Sergei Rudskoi said in televised remarks. 

Weather hampers investigation of Fox Glacier helicopter crash

Bad weather at the Fox Glacier helicopter crash site may prevent investigators from examining the crash site over the next two days.

Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) spokesman Peter Northcote said deteriorating weather was threatening to slow its site investigation into yesterday's crash.

"Weather conditions stopped on-site operations this afternoon and are forecast to be unfavourable on Monday and Tuesday," he said.

Mr Northcote said an investigator was able to survey and photograph the wreckage this morning. That would help with planning the on-site physical examination and removal of the wreckage, he said.

TAIC engineering expertise was also being used to plan how best to secure some pieces of wreckage while victim recovery work took place nearby.

"The visible wreckage is lying in heavily crevassed steep terrain about the size of a rugby field, and alpine cliff rescue staff assistance will be required for any on-scene work," Mr Northcote said.

"The commission and police are commissioning a commercial photography drone survey of the accident area, and this will take place when weather and other on-site operations allow.

"While on-site work is suspended the investigation team is focused on gathering documentary evidence, working with the operating company, and starting formal interviews."

Mr Northcote said agencies in France and the United States - where the aircraft and engine were made - had been invited to take part in the inquiry, as was the international convention.

"The United Kingdom and Australia have also been invited to appoint a representative due to their nationals having been passengers," he said.

The commission has a team of four in Fox Glacier with other resources on stand-by if required.

A drone is scheduled to fly above Fox Glacier to gather information on the wreckage and it is expected that a helicopter will be used to haul the wrecked machine out of the crevasse where it is wedged and lift it off the glacier.

Seven people - including pilot Mitch Gameren, two Australians and four British nationals - died in the crash of the Alpine Adventures tourist flight shortly before 11am yesterday.

Mr Northcote says the method of removing the crashed helicopter will "depend on the integrity of the parts of the wreckage when we actually get to be able to look at them close up".

"There are a range of aircraft types available, helicopter types, and methods that we could use, but it's too early to say what those might be.

"It will most likely be helicopter recovery.

"There are a couple of things that have to happen first. The first priority is the removal of the victims. The next priority is that the commission with the police are commissioning a commercial drone to do an aerial survey of the wreckage site before any significant pieces of wreckage are removed.

"That will take place over the next couple of days, weather permitting. Operations have ceased on the glacier this afternoon because of weather and it's looking not that flash tomorrow and potentially the day after.

"An investigator flew over the scene today and recorded it photographically. The scene is a very difficult one, heavily crevassed and snow and ice, and much of the wreckage is in a crevasse or buried."

The surface of the glacier around the wreckage site is steep in places and investigation staff will, for their own safety, in many places need to be attached by climbing rope to alpine rescue team members.

TAIC has a team of four deployed to Fox Glacier, including two investigators with helicopter pilot and engineering expertise, a consulting helicopter engineering expert, and a liaison and logistics manager.

The crash occurred between the centre of the glacier and its south-western edge at about 760m above sea level. The glacier is about 900m wide at that point.

Prime Minister John Key said the crash was "obviously very tragic", and he had passed his condolences for the loss of the Australians' lives to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull when he met him last night.

Asked about any effect on visitor numbers, Mr Key, also Minister of Tourism, said he did not think it would put people off coming here, or undertaking adventure tourism activities.

"Most people are aware there is a degree of risk when you get in a helicopter. But, having said that, there needs to be a full investigation. We need to understand whether it was the weather that caused this issue."

Rob Jewell, chairman of Glacier Country Tourism, said this afternoon the alpine cliff rescue team and local search and rescue team were still involved in the recovery operation.

Mr Jewell believed one of one of the helicopter companies was helping with the operation earlier today.

"My understanding is that that's since stopped due to the weather."

Mr Jewell said short windows of good weather in a generally poor forecast would hopefully allow for some breakthroughs in the recovery operation.

The local helicopter tourism community was a tight-knit group within what was itself the close Fox Glacier community, Mr Jewell said.

He said many of the pilots knew each other and it was a difficult time for them.

"The focus at the moment is on friends, the family of the loved ones who've unfortunately lost their lives in this tragedy."

He said it was too soon to talk about any longer-term questions about possible impacts on tourism in the area.

"We're just dealing with the situation here on the ground, looking after people, providing them with as much support as we can."

Mr Jewell said everybody in the community was doing as much as possible to help out.

The local cafe, he said, was providing refreshments to people involved in the operation.

"It's a small community so everyone pitches in ... to make this as easy as possible."

Staff at some local helicopter operators, clearly upset, did not want to talk at length.

Earlier today, Alpine Adventures spokesman Mike Nolan said dismal weather hampered progress this morning and it could be days before families had closure.

"The weather is certainly hampering efforts. It looks like inclement weather for a further two or three days unfortunately. But hopefully there are some breaks in between where they can make progress - but at this stage it's really slow."

Mr Nolan said light drizzle and "very, very low cloud" around the mountains and below the accident site was an impediment to the search.

"It's absolutely tragic. And our thoughts are just with the families at the moment, of the pilot and the passengers."

He said everybody was hoping for a break in the weather.

"The sooner the better, for the families, that we get this done."

Trendquiz Is A Super Addictive Game Using Google Trends Data

I’m a fan of Google Trends. Whenever a new meme pops up or some major news breaks, I head there to check how interested people are in said information and whether they’ve been interested all along, when it got really hot…and when it became not.

A simple site called trendquiz uses Google Trends data to quiz you on whether you can pick out what the trend line is, and it gives you two options to choose from. You can also choose from topics like technology:

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Hay ye bv haha - Video Dailymotion