Blatter Resigns as FIFA Chief

One Million Smokers Win £8bn In Compensation

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A Canadian judge rules that tobacco companies failed to adequately warn consumers about the health risks associated with smoking.

Ship sinks in China's Yangtze river

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A Chinese ship carrying 458 people went down late Monday during a storm.
    


ISIS kidnapped 500 children to create suicide bombers or child soldiers

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The children were taken by the Islamic extremists from Iraq's Anbar and Diyala provinces in recent weeks, and authorities fear they will now be trained so the militants can use them in 'terror attacks'.

Contributing Op-Ed Writer: Can Kurds Shake Up Turkey’s Politics? 

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A new party that attracts leftist and Kurdish nationalist voters could spell trouble for Erdogan.

Polls reflect troubles for Clinton and Bush - USA TODAY

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USA TODAY

Polls reflect troubles for Clinton and Bush
USA TODAY
A pair of new polls reflect potential long-term challenges for the best-known presidential candidates in each party: Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Jeb Bush. A CNN/ORC poll shows that Clinton — dogged by questions about missing emails and ...
Hillary Clinton's problem is honesty. The GOP's is empathy.Washington Post (blog)
Poll: Hillary Clinton Weakens on Trustworthiness While Jeb Bush Slides Into ...ABC News
Hillary Clinton Faces Questions of Trustworthiness in New PollsTIME
Daily Caller -MarketWatch -Politico
all 49 news articles »

Russian Ultranationalist Leader Goes On Trial For High-Profile Killings 

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The long-awaited trial of an alleged Russian ultranationalist leader accused of high-profile, murderous hate crimes has begun.

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New Russian invasion documentary dismays Czech and Slovak governments 

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The 1968 invasion by Soviet troops of Czechoslovakia has had a revision on Russian TV claiming they were there to stop Nato overthrowing the government
Both Czech and Slovak government officials have registered their dismay at a new Russian documentary about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 that was broadcast on Russia’s state-run Rossiya 1 TV channel on May 23.
A statement on the Slovak ministry of foreign affairs website said they had been “unpleasantly surprised” by the film, entitled Warsaw Pact – Pages Declassified, describing it as an attempt “to rewrite history and to falsify historical truths about such a dark chapter of our history”. Czech foreign ministry spokeswoman Michaela Lagronova called it “lies”, and said the issue had been raised with the Russian ambassador as the same time as a demand for an explanation over Russia’s travel ban on a string of prominent Europeans.
Continue reading...

How Obama blurred the border between Hollywood and Washington 

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Later this month, Hillary Clinton will host a fundraiser in Tobey Maguire’s house, the day after Barack Obama does the same at Tyler Perry’s LA gaff. When did the movies and politics start cohabiting?
The ad was called, simply, “Celeb.” Just 30 seconds long, it opened by placing in montage an image of Barack Obama, just weeks from accepting the Democratic nomination for president, alongside Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, before launching into a criticism of his tax and energy policies. In the early days of August 2008, when it looked as if nothing could stop Obama’s ascension to the presidency, the ad resonated deeply with voters. And when Obama suffered a subsequent dip in the polls, many pundits, including Obama’s mentor and campaign adviser Tom Daschleattributed it to “Celeb”.
Why was this ad so successful? In essence, it identified a lingering fear among all but Obama’s most fervent supporters – that voters were a little too infatuated with his rhetoric and charisma, neither of which would necessarily translate to policy victories. Despite its initial success, the ad did nothing to knock the Obama train off the tracks (perhaps because John McCain undermined his asset the ad was meant to highlight – experience – by nominating a half-term governor as his running mate just days later), but there is still something about it that resonates.
Have you met Luther, President Obama's anger translator? #WHCD http://t.co/5ShwiopHcq
You're so handsome I can't speak properly
Continue reading...

IRS commissioner to face questions about security weaknesses

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government watchdogs warned the IRS about security flaws in the agency's computer systems years before hackers stole the personal information of thousands of taxpayers from an IRS website....

Ksenia Sobchak's Bearded Priest Post Sparks Probe In Russia

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Prominent Russian Ksenia Sobchak could face prosecution over an Instagram post that showed her wearing a priest's robe and a flowing fake beard. Investigators are checking whether the photo violates a blasphemy law passed amid the uproar over Pussy Riot's "punk protest" in a Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Inmates who asked for forgiveness at Iranian prison are executed

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The 34 inmates had congregated in the yard of Ghezel Hasar, northwest of the capital Tehran, to ask Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for forgiveness but were instead promptly executed.

Bungling US military scientists sent live anthrax samples to Canada in latest biohazard security blunder

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Canada is the third country to have been placed on after bungling scientists sent out live samples of the deadly Anthrax bacteria forcing the precautionary vaccination of more than 20 people.

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Iraqi Leader Wants More Help Against Islamic State

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Iraqi forces need more support from the international community in fighting Islamic State, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said after a meeting of top diplomats in Paris.

ISIS is world's 'failure' Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi warns before Paris summit

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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (C) and members of the anti-Islamic State coalition meet on June 2, 2015 in Paris, to discuss strategy in fighting the jihadists who have made key battlefield advances in recent weeks in Iraq and Syria. AFP PHOTO / POOL / STEPHANE DE SAKUTINSTEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images

Schoolboy found hanged days after video of him being punched by another teenager as others laugh was posted online

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In footage which has been widely circulated on social media, Adam Tharia, from Cheltenham, was seen being knocked to the ground, just one week before he was found hanged.

Frontrunner angst: Bush lead evaporates, Clinton favorability hits 7-year low - Washington Post

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Frontrunner angst: Bush lead evaporates, Clinton favorability hits 7-year low
Washington Post
After five months of forums, fundraising appearances and trips to the early states, the 2016 Republican nomination contest is as unsettled as ever, with no candidate receiving more than 11 percent support and seven candidates all within three points of one ...

and more »

Russian Missile Maker Points Finger At Ukraine In MH17 Shootdown 

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The Russian maker of the Buk surface-to-air missile system says the Malaysian Airlines jet that crashed in eastern Ukraine last summer was hit by a missile that is used by Ukraine but not by Russia.

China Races to Find Ferry Accident Survivors

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Chinese authorities are racing to reach survivors still trapped beneath a passenger ship that capsized in the Yangtze River late Monday.

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Iraqi PM Warns That New ISIS Fighters Are Overwhelming the Iraqi Army 

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As U.S., European and Middle Eastern officials gathered in Paris on Tuesday to discuss how to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), Iraq’s Prime Minister told reporters that hundreds of crack foreign fighters had flooded into Iraq in recent weeks to join ISIS.
“They have brought hundreds of new fighters, well trained, well armed, very good networking,” says Haidar al-Abadi before Tuesday’s talks began. “We are trying very hard on our part, but this is a transnational organization. It needs all the intelligence of the world, and we are not getting much.”
The sense of urgency among Western leaders has risen sharply since mid-May, when ISIS seized Iraq’s western town of Ramadi. The battle seemed one-sided, with a determined ISIS driving out ineffectual Iraqi troops. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter blamed Iraqi soldiers for the defeat, saying they had “no will to fight” even though the U.S. has 2,200 military personnel supporting the Iraqi army and it has provided it with some $500 million in weapons and ammunition.
ISIS is now 70 miles outside Baghdad and international officials are scrambling to craft a strategy to reverse the group’s gains both in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS seized the city of Palmyra last month.
Abadi, a Shiite politician who replaced his unpopular predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki, last August, says the Iraqi military faced two huge challenges in Ramadi last month. First, he says, ISIS loaded huge armored trucks with explosives, parked them on the frontline, and then detonated them, “like a mini nuclear bomb,” killing frontline soldiers, and causing troops further back to flee. Second, he says, ISIS fighters infiltrated the Sunni-dominated city before seizing it, taking over the mosques and then blasting messages from the loudspeakers encouraging Iraqi soldiers to retreat, rather than fight.
Despite recent failures, Abadi said U.S. troops would not join the fight after pulling out of combat in December 2011. “No. We don’t want it because it is complicating. And in all honesty we will never get it, with public opinion in the West and in the U.S., ” he says.
Western officials fear that Sunni Iraqis do not want to fight ISIS, which some believe is a lesser evil than the Shiite militias fighting on the government side. ISIS also has hundreds of foreign fighters from Sunni states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. ISIS in Iraq now comprises about 58% foreign fighters, compared with just 40% a few months ago. Many of the fighters come from the Persian Gulf, Turkey and Egypt, according to Abadi.
Abadi said his government was determined to place more Iraqi Sunnis in command positions. “We learned a lot from Ramadi. We have learned how to fight Daesh,” he says, using the Arabic term for ISIS. He said the Iraqi army had begun recruiting Sunni commanders and that his government was in close contact with exiled Sunni leaders in Jordan. He said he had also moved brigades to the northern city of Mosul, which ISIS seized last June, in readiness for a major assault.
On the ground, however, there are reports that Iraqi soldiers are severely overstretched. One U.S. Special Forces officer told Politico last weekend that ISIS “are just better fighters. They have fire discipline. They cover each other’s advances. They keep moving. The Iraqis do none of these things.”
The new Iraqi army will not be enough on its own to defeat ISIS in Iraq. Abadi said his most important need was an increase in aerial surveillance from U.S. planes, to spot ISIS on the move. “Surveillance is very small,” he said. “Daesh is mobile, they move in very small groups. They can gather somewhere else, and attack,” he said. “They are not seen by coalition partners.”
As the U.S.-led coalition plows more money into bolstering Iraq’s military, Abadi knows that his pleas for more arms and ammunition will be met with close scrutiny as Western officials weigh how to best battle to beat ISIS. But the Iraqi Prime Minister argues that the West cannot afford to ignore his calls for more help despite the problems his government has in managing its military. “The danger…is huge,” he says. ISIS “is creating a new generation of fighters, ,” he said. “They prepared to die, but they want to win.”
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Missile maker says Russia did not shoot down Malaysian plane over Ukraine

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian company that makes the BUK air defense system that was used to shoot down a Malaysian airliner in east Ukraine said on Tuesday the plane was hit by a missile deployed by Ukraine and not widely used by Russia's military.
  

US senators call for mandatory reporting of police killings

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Plan, announced one day after Guardian investigation, would force all US law enforcement agencies to report officer-involved killings to Department of Justice
A plan to force all American law enforcement agencies to report killings by their officers was unveiled by US senators on Tuesday, a day after the Guardian published an investigation into the fatal use of force by police.
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Anti-IS Coalition Vows Support For Iraqi Plan

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Coalition countries fighting the Islamic State (IS) group have pledged their "firm support" for an Iraqi plan to tackle IS advances in Iraq's western Anbar Province.

FBI Flying Surveillance Planes Over US Cities

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There are dozens of planes in the agency's spy fleet - all registered to front companies - circling over neighbourhoods.

Crimean Tatar Leader's Son Found Guilty Of Manslaughter

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The son of a leading Crimean Tatar figure has been found guilty of manslaughter by a Russian court.

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Syria: Isis advance on Aleppo aided by Assad regime air strikes, US says 

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Opposition fighters make same claims as Isis advances towards Azaz, 20 miles north-west of Aleppo, which would imperil their supply line into Syria’s biggest city
The US has accused the Syrian government of providing air support to an advance by Islamic State militants against opposition groups north of Aleppo.
Fighters opposing the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have made the same claims since Sunday, when Isis began advancing towards the town of Azaz near the Turkish border.
Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL's advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population
Continue reading...

US Homeland Security Chief Reassigns Top TSA Official

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Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Monday he reassigned the acting administrator for the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, after earlier ordering improved security at U.S. airports. The moves follow media reports that checkpoint screeners failed to detect mock explosives and weapons in 95 percent of tests carried out by undercover agents. Johnson said in a statement that Melvin Carraway would be reassigned to serve in the Office of State and Local Law...

No Apparent Mechanical Problems in Deadly Amtrak Derailment, NTSB Says - ABC News

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ABC News

No Apparent Mechanical Problems in Deadly Amtrak Derailment, NTSB Says
ABC News
Investigators have found no apparent mechanical problems in last month's deadly Amtrak derailment, the National Transportation Safety Board said. "No anomalies" have been found so far when investigators looked at the train braking systems, signals and ... 
NTSB report: No equipment issue on Amtrak crashUSA TODAY

Amtrak Mystery: Crash probe finds no mechanical trouble, official cites 'human ...Fox News 
Was Amtrak engineer on cellphone before crash? Records still being examinedLos Angeles Times

Wall Street Journal -Washington Post
all 130 
news articles »

The story of Amilcar Perez-Lopez, Guatemalan migrant killed by San Francisco police – video

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Amilcar Perez-Lopez was a 20-year-old undocumented migrant from Guatemala. He was shot dead by two plain-clothed San Francisco police officers on 26 February. Conflicting accounts of the death have emerged, with forensic evidence indicating he was shot from behind. Perez-Lopez was one of the 67 Latino people identified by the Guardian as killed by police so far this year. Like 58% of them, he carried no firearm Continue reading...

'Shot from behind': man's death reveals hidden horror of Latino police killings 

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Amilcar Perez-Lopez was a 20-year-old Guatemalan immigrant shot to death by police officers who said he lunged at them with a knife. Eyewitnesses, after being ‘driven underground’, say he was running for his life
Outside the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco’s Mission district, a newly painted mural glows in the afternoon sun. Two of the men etched on the wall are instantly recognisable: to the right stands Eric Garner, the unarmed black man killed by police in New York City; Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, stands to the left. But framed in the middle is a face hardly anyone from beyond the streets of this historically working class area would have ever noticed.
Amilcar Perez-Lopez was 20 years old when he was shot dead by two plain-clothed San Francisco police officers in February. An undocumented migrant and Guatemalan national, he is pictured at the bottom of the mural, his hands up, clutching a copy of Huey P Newton’s Revolutionary Suicide.
Two officers with a history of violence, one bike and the man who never got away
I've always been surprised that the groundswell doesn't rise to the level that it does in other shootings.
He was paying $300 rent to live on a cot in a boiler room …How much more honorable could somebody be?
Continue reading...

Kazakh Friend Of Boston Marathon Bomber Jailed For 6 Years

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A friend of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev found guilty of obstructing a police investigation into the deadly 2013 attack has been sentenced to six years in prison.

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Uprooted Iraqis at Risk of Water-Borne Disease Outbreaks

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The World Health Organization said millions of internally displaced people in Iraq are at risk of water-borne and other communicable diseases as scorching summer temperatures kick in. The U.N. agency warns it is practically broke and soon will not be able to provide life-saving assistance. The World Health Organization said it will run out of money at the end of this month. The WHO and its 29 health partners need $60 million until the end of the year to provide health care for 2.8 million...

Sepp Blatter to Resign as FIFA President - New York Times

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New York Times

Sepp Blatter to Resign as FIFA President
New York Times
Sepp Blatter, who led world soccer's governing body for 17 years and had just won re-election for a fifth four-year term, resigned his position at a hastily called news conference in Zurich on Tuesday evening in the wake of an international corruption inquiry.
Blatter quits as FIFA chief after corruption scandalReuters
 

Sepp Blatter announces he will step down as FIFA presidentUSA TODAY 
Sepp Blatter stepping down, says FIFA needs 'profound overhaul'CNN
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post (blog)-Bloomberg

all 1,219 news articles »

CIA sex abuse and torture went beyond Senate report disclosures, detainee says 

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Majid Khan, who underwent ‘enhanced interrogation’, says authorities poured ice water on his genitals and hung him naked from a beam for days
The US Central Intelligence Agency used a wider array of sexual abuse and other forms of torture than was disclosed in a Senate report last year, according to a Guantánamo Bay detainee turned government cooperating witness.
Continue reading...

Blatter Resigns as FIFA Chief

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Sepp Blatter resigned as FIFA president on Tuesday, four days after being re-elected to a fifth term. Blatter, 79, announced the decision at a news conference in Zurich, six days after the FBI raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested several FIFA officials.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter To Resign

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FIFA President Sepp Blatter is to quit amid a corruption scandal engulfing the footballing body.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter Resigns 

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(ZURICH)—FIFA President Sepp Blatter says he will resign from soccer’s governing body amid a widening corruption scandal and has promised to call for fresh elections to choose a successor.
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Sepp Blatter to Resign as FIFA President

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FIFA President Sepp Blatter said he will step down as the head of the global governing body of soccer, in the wake of the disclosure last week of more than a dozen U.S. indictments against current and former FIFA officials.

FIFA President Blatter to step down

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FIFA President Sepp Blatter will step down as head of world soccer's governing body but only after the organization's executive committee organizes a fresh vote "for the election of my successor," he said Tuesday.
    

Blatter stands down as FIFA president

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Sports | Tue Jun 2, 2015 1:03pm EDT
Re-elected FIFA President Sepp Blatter gestures during news conference after an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, May 30, 2015.
Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann
FIFA President Sepp Blatter addresses a news conference at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, June 2, 2015.
Reuters/Ruben Sprich
FIFA President Sepp Blatter FIFA arrives for a news conference at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, June 2, 2015.
Reuters/Ruben Sprich
Re-elected FIFA President Sepp Blatter gestures during news conference after an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, May 30, 2015.
Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann
FIFA President Sepp Blatter addresses a news conference at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, June 2, 2015.
Reuters/Ruben Sprich
ZURICH Sepp Blatter resigned as FIFA president on Tuesday, four days after being re-elected to a fifth term.
Blatter, 79, announced the decision at a news conference in Zurich, six days after the FBI raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested several FIFA officials.
He was re-elected after his only rival, Jordan's Prince Ali bin Al Hussein withdrew after losing heavily in the first round of voting.
"FIFA has been my life...what counts most for me is FIFA and football around the world," Blatter said.
"An extraordinary congress is to be called to elect my successor as soon as possible."
(Reporting by Brian Homewood, editing by Mitch Phillips:)
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Russia Extends Detention Of Alleged Estonian Spy

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A court in Russia’s northwestern Pskov region has extended the pretrial custody until August 4 for Eston Kohver, an Estonian security officer that Russia accuses of espionage.

FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft Over US Cities

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The Associated Press has learned the FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video or, at times, cellphone surveillance technology.   The surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI says the flights are for ongoing investigations. The planes can also capture video of unrelated criminal activity on the ground as evidence for prosecutions.   In a recent 30-day period, the AP found the...

Justices don’t resolve much in online threats case

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It’s worse to be reckless than it is to be negligent, but a reckless person may not fully know what he’s doing. Would recklessness suffice to convict Elonis?
     
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