Recag/C4_5 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Hurricane Florence will bring life-threatening storm surge to the Carolinas and Virginia, but Delmarva's coast could also be significantly affected, forecasters say.
Heavy rains, tropical storm force winds and tidal flooding are all likely despite the hurricane's expected landfall in North Carolina on Thursday, said Jonathan McGee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield, Virginia.
"It is still going to be very impactful for the Eastern Shore" because of the width of the storm, McGee said. Florence was 500 miles wide Monday afternoon, meaning wind gusts could be between 50-60 mph on the Eastern Shore.
The earliest onset of conditions will begin Wednesday night, although forecasters will have a better idea Tuesday morning. Into the day Thursday and Friday, a rainfall of 4-8 inches is expected, but could 10-15 inches into the weekend if the storm stalls after landfall, McGee said.
High surf, strong rip currents and coastal flooding were already being warned for Delmarva beaches Monday. The National Weather Service has warned of beach hazards and high rip current risk along the Atlantic coast of Maryland and Virginia.
At 11 a.m. Monday, Florence was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane and located about 580 miles southeast of Bermuda, according to the National Hurricane Center. By noon, the center upgrade the hurricane to Category 4 with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph. By 5 p.m., Florence continued to gather strength, as the National Hurricane Center recorded sustained winds of 140 mph.
In addition to rain and wind, coastal flooding could be an issue, McGee said.
Monday evening, Virginia's Gov. Ralph Northam issued a mandatory evacuation for people living in Zone A of the state hurricane evacuation zones — which includes low-lying coastal areas on the Eastern Shore.
Monday afternoon, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency to allow the state to more efficiently coordinate support and provide assistance to local jurisdictions within Maryland and neighboring states.
"At this time, there is still some uncertainty about the track of this storm and its potential impact, but we are preparing for any possible outcome, including the potential of historic, catastrophic, and life-threatening flooding in Maryland," said Hogan, after signing an executive order effective Monday.
"Our state is taking every precaution, and I urge all Marylanders to do the same. Stay tuned to your local news stations for the latest updates, listen to state and local authorities, and most importantly, use common sense."
Officials at Assateague State Park have already closed beach access at day use and campground until further notice.
In a Facebook post, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources cited dangerous surf, 12-foot plus waves and higher than normal tide levels for the decision.
“Beach access crossovers will be chained and signed. Day use lot will be open (visitors will be able to go to top of dune to view but will not be allowed on the beach or in the water),” Natural Resources said in the post.
The Ocean City Fire Department also warned visitors heading to the Boardwalk on Monday to be careful as piles of sand covered the Boardwalk from high winds over the weekend.
Town officials in Ocean City continue to monitor the storm, urging residents to prepare for possible flooding downtown and high winds.
Rain and thunderstorms are forecast for the beach areas through the week.
In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency Saturday in anticipation of potential impacts from Hurricane Florence.
At noon Monday, the town of Chincoteague declared a state of emergency.
"While the National Hurricane Center does not currently expect to have a direct landfall of the very dangerous and catastrophic eye-wall in or very near Chincoteague, the area will still receive impacts from this very large and powerful storm starting late Wednesday or early Thursday," the town's statement read.
Weekend rain has already caused flooding. McGee said higher than normal king tides and wind have water levels 2 feet above normal in some areas of Somerset and Dorchester counties.
Northampton County Public Schools closed all schools Monday due to "persistent weather conditions."
In Maryland, Shore Transit bus service limited stops in Crisfield to the McDonald's due to flooding Monday. Full service resumed at about 11 a.m. when water receded.
In Delaware, Gov. John Carney advised residents to prepare for the coming storm although its potential impact on the state remained unclear.
In Rehoboth Beach, lifeguards worked to remove beach mats and lifeguard stands from the surf. Caution tape has been draped across the beach entrances to dissuade people from getting too close to a dangerously angry ocean, said Rehoboth Beach Patrol Capt. Kent Buckson.
"This type of surf can knock you down, and if you roll into the surf you can get sucked out," he said, warning that he has unfortunately seen it happen before.
Chilton — The central piece of Steven Avery's defense — that sheriff's deputies planted his blood in Teresa Halbach's car — suffered three setbacks Monday.
The developments occurred on an unusual day of Avery's trial — the proceedings were held without the jury and the specter of the O.J. Simpson trial was raised.
• Marc LeBeau, head of the chemistry unit at FBI headquarters in Virginia, testified that Avery's blood almost certainly was not planted in Halbach's car.
To reach that opinion, LeBeau used so-called EDTA testing that the FBI had used only once before — in Simpson's 1995 murder trial.
• The judge in Avery's trial, Patrick Willis of Manitowoc County Circuit Court, ruled that the jury will be allowed to hear LeBeau's testimony.
Avery's lead attorney, Dean Strang, had argued that the EDTA testing process was unreliable and implored Willis "not to join Judge (Lance) Ito's club." That was a reference to the Simpson trial judge.
But Willis said the test results will help the jury render verdicts and that Avery's lawyers can question the process while cross-examining the FBI chemist.
• Willis refused a request by Avery's attorneys to conduct their own EDTA testing.
Willis pointed out that Avery's lawyers discovered a vial of Avery's blood left unsecured in the Manitowoc County Courthouse in July 2006, giving them plenty of time to have it tested. Therefore, he concluded, they did not have a right to a months-long delay in the trial or a mistrial, as they requested.
Avery's lawyers claim that Manitowoc County sheriff's deputies put Avery's blood from the vial into Halbach's car in an attempt to frame him with her murder.
EDTA, or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, is a synthetic chemical that is used to preserve blood but is also found in countless products, including food, shampoo and detergents.
The FBI tested samples of Avery's blood found in three places in Halbach's car and found no EDTA. That indicated that the blood found there did not come from the blood vial in the courthouse.
Six Figure Pay, Own Island, Sign Me Up : Blog Of The Nation Economy stinks... You want this job! Comes with its own tropical island.
No formal qualifications are needed but candidates must be willing to swim, snorkel, dive and sail. In return, the successful applicant will receive a salary of A$150,000 ($103,000, 70,000) for six months and get to live rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool.
The new recruit will work for just 12 hours a month. Duties include feeding some of the hundreds of species of fish and collecting the island's mail.
I'll be working on my application if you need me.
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair’s directly-employed pilots in Ireland will join colleagues in Sweden and Belgium on strike in an escalating day of action on Aug. 10, the fifth one-day walkout in the airline’s home market.
Ryanair has suffered strikes in some of its other main markets such as Spain and Portugal as it struggles to reach collective labour agreements across Europe, and expects to face action in Germany and the Netherlands as well on Aug. 10.
The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, has responded by threatening to move jobs away from any bases affected by the stoppages, beginning with Dublin where it cut its winter fleet by 20 percent and put over 300 employees on preliminary notice.
“The airline’s escalation of the dispute last Wednesday – when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland – led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff,” Ireland’s Forsa/IALPA trade union said in a statement.
The union said it was willing to explore the option of a third-party facilitating talks but Ryanair said its offer to meet the union one-on-one on Tuesday to try and solve their differences was pointless after another strike was called.
“This fifth strike notice by FORSA is irresponsible, unwarranted and is disrupting customers and is a way of damaging Ryanair’s business,” Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said in a statement.
Around a quarter of Ryanair’s 350 pilots based in Ireland have taken part in the series of strikes so far, with the fourth scheduled for Friday.
Ryanair cancelled around 20 of Friday’s 300 Irish flights as a result, mainly on busy routes to and from Ireland and Britain, and has said impacted passengers have either been put on another flight or refunded.
It said on Thursday that it would contact another 3,500 passengers to inform them of 20 further cancellations on Aug. 10.
Ryanair, which operates from 86 bases in 37 countries and carried 130 million passengers last year, decided to recognise unions for the first time in its 32-year history last December to avert widespread strikes before Christmas.
Its shares fell further on Thursday and were down 3.6 percent at 13.02 euros by 1525 GMT, their lowest level since November 2016 and 8 percent below the level hit in December when Ryanair shocked the markets by recognising unions.
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected a compromise plan aimed at breaking the country's political deadlock.
A summit of southern African leaders had told Zimbabwe's rival parties they should share control of the disputed home affairs ministry.
The call came at the end of a day of talks in Johannesburg by the 15-nation Southern African Development Community.
The summit also said it could send peacekeeping forces into the DR Congo.
Mr Tsvangirai told reporters: "This issue of co-sharing does not work. We have said so ourselves, we have rejected it, and that's the position.
"There is no agreement to co-sharing, to rotation, to swapping of ministries."
He said his dispute with President Robert Mugabe was about more than who controls the home affairs ministry, which has the police force under its command.
"It is about giving the responsibility to the party that won an election and has compromised its position to share a government with a party that lost," he said.
He argued that since Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party had control of the ministries of defence and state security, his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) should control the police.
Mr Tsvangirai said he remained committed to power-sharing but was "shocked and saddened" by the outcome of the talks.
He told the SADC leaders they lacked the courage to tell Mr Mugabe that his position was wrong.
Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal eight weeks ago that would see the MDC leader becoming prime minister, but they have failed to reach an agreement on the formation of a cabinet.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who chaired the summit, said an agreement on power-sharing "remains the only vehicle to help extricate Zimbabwe from her socio-economic challenges".
Zimbabwe is suffering from severe food shortages and rampant inflation.
Mr Tsvangirai has warned that a million Zimbabweans could starve to death in a year if the political deadlock continues.
Tomaz Salomao, executive secretary of the SADC, said the compromise would mean there would have to be two home ministers, "one appointed by Zanu-PF, one by the MDC".
Mr Salomao told reporters that "the SADC was asked to rule and SADC took a decision and that's the position of SADC".
"Now it's up to the parties to implement," he said.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher, at the summit, says the call effectively backs Mr Mugabe.
Arthur Mutambara, head of an MDC breakaway party which is also involved in the agreement, said the offer was "as good as it gets".
"If we can do the following - national healing, a new constitution, economic recovery, resolve the humanitarian crisis - just doing those four things, we'll create conditions... to have a proper election in which the opposition can win," he said.
"[MDC-Tsvangirai] want more deaths, a few more weeks of deaths, a few more weeks of violation of our rights and then eventually we are going to agree."
In the proposed division of ministries, Zanu-PF also has key posts such as justice and foreign affairs, while Mr Mugabe has reportedly agreed that the MDC could have finance.
But after the MDC accused the security forces of involvement in a campaign of violence against its supporters during this year's election campaign, it insists that it has a share in running them.
Our correspondent says Mr Mugabe has accepted the deal but that Mr Tsvangirai will now hope the matter is taken from SADC and given to other bodies like the UN.
The summit also backed an immediate ceasefire in the DR Congo, where rebel fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people.
"The security situation in DRC is affecting peace and stability in the SADC and Great Lakes region," the group said, adding that it had agreed to send peacekeeping troops into the Congo if necessary.
A New Hampshire woman was kicked out of a bar – for drinking soda.
Karen Ellis, 30, was asked to leave on karaoke night, which she regularly attends with friends, because bar owner Jim Wong said he had bills to pay and couldn’t let patrons just drink Pepsi all night.
“He said he needed to pay his DJ and couldn’t afford to do that if regular customers didn’t buy alcoholic drinks. He told me to leave,” Ellis said.
A California dog owner registered his poodle to vote – and now he’s in the dog house.
Donald Miller, who signed up his pet, Barnabus, pleaded guilty to registration fraud and was fined $250 and given six months’ probation.
The 78-year-old Lafayette resident says he took the bizarre action to show how lax the registration process is.
A couple about to wed atop a Washington mountain were blown over by a strong wind – and had to get hitched in the hospital instead.
Charles Grubbs and Melody Wyman were set to exchange vows on Mount Rainier when the wind swept them and their minister into a crevasse 2,500 feet short of the summit.
All three were pulled to safety and flown to Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center, whose chaplain conducted the ceremony.
Wyman, 48, had a plaster cast on her right leg and was standing with the aid of a crutch, supported by Grubbs, 50.
Some people collect art – Glen Dalessandro collects hotel soaps and shampoos.
The 52-year-old Pennsylvania man started his eccentric hobby in 1989 and now has 800 pieces he wants to put on exhibit.
His collection was culled on stays everywhere from Motel 6s to the Waldorf-Astoria, from New York and Philadelphia to San Francisco and Page, Ariz.
“This is like talking about my children. Aren’t they beautiful? Hey, everybody’s got to collect something,” says Dalessandro, a computer programmer from Hightstown.
When a Twitter user named ‘Badman’ asked Argos when the store would be “getting da ps4 tings” at his local store Argos responded in kind.
The customer service team informed Immy ‘Badman’ Bugti, who warned that he “Ain’t waitin no more”, the customer: “Safe, we gettin sum more PS4 tings in wivin da next week y’get me”.
The customer also complained about a rude sales assistant at a Moss Side store who had “bare attitude”.
Argos replied: “Soz bout da attitude, probz avin a bad day yo”.
The tweets went viral, resulting in more than 1,500 re-tweets in the space of a few hours. Hundreds of people favourited the messages.
‘Badman’ Bugti seemed happy with the firm’s response, replying @ArgosHelpers: ‘respect. Sick guy’.

Hurricane Florence will bring life-threatening storm surge to the Carolinas and Virginia, but Delmarva's coast could also be significantly affected, forecasters say.

Heavy rains, tropical storm force winds and tidal flooding are all likely despite the hurricane's expected landfall in North Carolina on Thursday, said Jonathan McGee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield, Virginia.

"It is still going to be very impactful for the Eastern Shore" because of the width of the storm, McGee said. Florence was 500 miles wide Monday afternoon, meaning wind gusts could be between 50-60 mph on the Eastern Shore.

The earliest onset of conditions will begin Wednesday night, although forecasters will have a better idea Tuesday morning. Into the day Thursday and Friday, a rainfall of 4-8 inches is expected, but could 10-15 inches into the weekend if the storm stalls after landfall, McGee said.

High surf, strong rip currents and coastal flooding were already being warned for Delmarva beaches Monday. The National Weather Service has warned of beach hazards and high rip current risk along the Atlantic coast of Maryland and Virginia.

At 11 a.m. Monday, Florence was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane and located about 580 miles southeast of Bermuda, according to the National Hurricane Center. By noon, the center upgrade the hurricane to Category 4 with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph. By 5 p.m., Florence continued to gather strength, as the National Hurricane Center recorded sustained winds of 140 mph.

In addition to rain and wind, coastal flooding could be an issue, McGee said.

Monday evening, Virginia's Gov. Ralph Northam issued a mandatory evacuation for people living in Zone A of the state hurricane evacuation zones — which includes low-lying coastal areas on the Eastern Shore.

Monday afternoon, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency to allow the state to more efficiently coordinate support and provide assistance to local jurisdictions within Maryland and neighboring states.

"At this time, there is still some uncertainty about the track of this storm and its potential impact, but we are preparing for any possible outcome, including the potential of historic, catastrophic, and life-threatening flooding in Maryland," said Hogan, after signing an executive order effective Monday.

"Our state is taking every precaution, and I urge all Marylanders to do the same. Stay tuned to your local news stations for the latest updates, listen to state and local authorities, and most importantly, use common sense."

Officials at Assateague State Park have already closed beach access at day use and campground until further notice.

In a Facebook post, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources cited dangerous surf, 12-foot plus waves and higher than normal tide levels for the decision.

“Beach access crossovers will be chained and signed. Day use lot will be open (visitors will be able to go to top of dune to view but will not be allowed on the beach or in the water),” Natural Resources said in the post.

The Ocean City Fire Department also warned visitors heading to the Boardwalk on Monday to be careful as piles of sand covered the Boardwalk from high winds over the weekend.

Town officials in Ocean City continue to monitor the storm, urging residents to prepare for possible flooding downtown and high winds.

Rain and thunderstorms are forecast for the beach areas through the week.

In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency Saturday in anticipation of potential impacts from Hurricane Florence.

At noon Monday, the town of Chincoteague declared a state of emergency.

"While the National Hurricane Center does not currently expect to have a direct landfall of the very dangerous and catastrophic eye-wall in or very near Chincoteague, the area will still receive impacts from this very large and powerful storm starting late Wednesday or early Thursday," the town's statement read.

Weekend rain has already caused flooding. McGee said higher than normal king tides and wind have water levels 2 feet above normal in some areas of Somerset and Dorchester counties.

Northampton County Public Schools closed all schools Monday due to "persistent weather conditions."

In Maryland, Shore Transit bus service limited stops in Crisfield to the McDonald's due to flooding Monday. Full service resumed at about 11 a.m. when water receded.

In Delaware, Gov. John Carney advised residents to prepare for the coming storm although its potential impact on the state remained unclear.

In Rehoboth Beach, lifeguards worked to remove beach mats and lifeguard stands from the surf. Caution tape has been draped across the beach entrances to dissuade people from getting too close to a dangerously angry ocean, said Rehoboth Beach Patrol Capt. Kent Buckson.

"This type of surf can knock you down, and if you roll into the surf you can get sucked out," he said, warning that he has unfortunately seen it happen before.

Chilton — The central piece of Steven Avery's defense — that sheriff's deputies planted his blood in Teresa Halbach's car — suffered three setbacks Monday.

The developments occurred on an unusual day of Avery's trial — the proceedings were held without the jury and the specter of the O.J. Simpson trial was raised.

• Marc LeBeau, head of the chemistry unit at FBI headquarters in Virginia, testified that Avery's blood almost certainly was not planted in Halbach's car.

To reach that opinion, LeBeau used so-called EDTA testing that the FBI had used only once before — in Simpson's 1995 murder trial.

• The judge in Avery's trial, Patrick Willis of Manitowoc County Circuit Court, ruled that the jury will be allowed to hear LeBeau's testimony.

Avery's lead attorney, Dean Strang, had argued that the EDTA testing process was unreliable and implored Willis "not to join Judge (Lance) Ito's club." That was a reference to the Simpson trial judge.

But Willis said the test results will help the jury render verdicts and that Avery's lawyers can question the process while cross-examining the FBI chemist.

• Willis refused a request by Avery's attorneys to conduct their own EDTA testing.

Willis pointed out that Avery's lawyers discovered a vial of Avery's blood left unsecured in the Manitowoc County Courthouse in July 2006, giving them plenty of time to have it tested. Therefore, he concluded, they did not have a right to a months-long delay in the trial or a mistrial, as they requested.

Avery's lawyers claim that Manitowoc County sheriff's deputies put Avery's blood from the vial into Halbach's car in an attempt to frame him with her murder.

EDTA, or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, is a synthetic chemical that is used to preserve blood but is also found in countless products, including food, shampoo and detergents.

The FBI tested samples of Avery's blood found in three places in Halbach's car and found no EDTA. That indicated that the blood found there did not come from the blood vial in the courthouse.

Six Figure Pay, Own Island, Sign Me Up : Blog Of The Nation Economy stinks... You want this job! Comes with its own tropical island.

No formal qualifications are needed but candidates must be willing to swim, snorkel, dive and sail. In return, the successful applicant will receive a salary of A$150,000 ($103,000, 70,000) for six months and get to live rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool.

The new recruit will work for just 12 hours a month. Duties include feeding some of the hundreds of species of fish and collecting the island's mail.

I'll be working on my application if you need me.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair’s directly-employed pilots in Ireland will join colleagues in Sweden and Belgium on strike in an escalating day of action on Aug. 10, the fifth one-day walkout in the airline’s home market.

Ryanair has suffered strikes in some of its other main markets such as Spain and Portugal as it struggles to reach collective labour agreements across Europe, and expects to face action in Germany and the Netherlands as well on Aug. 10.

The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, has responded by threatening to move jobs away from any bases affected by the stoppages, beginning with Dublin where it cut its winter fleet by 20 percent and put over 300 employees on preliminary notice.

“The airline’s escalation of the dispute last Wednesday – when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland – led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff,” Ireland’s Forsa/IALPA trade union said in a statement.

The union said it was willing to explore the option of a third-party facilitating talks but Ryanair said its offer to meet the union one-on-one on Tuesday to try and solve their differences was pointless after another strike was called.

“This fifth strike notice by FORSA is irresponsible, unwarranted and is disrupting customers and is a way of damaging Ryanair’s business,” Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said in a statement.

Around a quarter of Ryanair’s 350 pilots based in Ireland have taken part in the series of strikes so far, with the fourth scheduled for Friday.

Ryanair cancelled around 20 of Friday’s 300 Irish flights as a result, mainly on busy routes to and from Ireland and Britain, and has said impacted passengers have either been put on another flight or refunded.

It said on Thursday that it would contact another 3,500 passengers to inform them of 20 further cancellations on Aug. 10.

Ryanair, which operates from 86 bases in 37 countries and carried 130 million passengers last year, decided to recognise unions for the first time in its 32-year history last December to avert widespread strikes before Christmas.

Its shares fell further on Thursday and were down 3.6 percent at 13.02 euros by 1525 GMT, their lowest level since November 2016 and 8 percent below the level hit in December when Ryanair shocked the markets by recognising unions.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected a compromise plan aimed at breaking the country's political deadlock.

A summit of southern African leaders had told Zimbabwe's rival parties they should share control of the disputed home affairs ministry.

The call came at the end of a day of talks in Johannesburg by the 15-nation Southern African Development Community.

The summit also said it could send peacekeeping forces into the DR Congo.

Mr Tsvangirai told reporters: "This issue of co-sharing does not work. We have said so ourselves, we have rejected it, and that's the position.

"There is no agreement to co-sharing, to rotation, to swapping of ministries."

He said his dispute with President Robert Mugabe was about more than who controls the home affairs ministry, which has the police force under its command.

"It is about giving the responsibility to the party that won an election and has compromised its position to share a government with a party that lost," he said.

He argued that since Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party had control of the ministries of defence and state security, his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) should control the police.

Mr Tsvangirai said he remained committed to power-sharing but was "shocked and saddened" by the outcome of the talks.

He told the SADC leaders they lacked the courage to tell Mr Mugabe that his position was wrong.

Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal eight weeks ago that would see the MDC leader becoming prime minister, but they have failed to reach an agreement on the formation of a cabinet.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who chaired the summit, said an agreement on power-sharing "remains the only vehicle to help extricate Zimbabwe from her socio-economic challenges".

Zimbabwe is suffering from severe food shortages and rampant inflation.

Mr Tsvangirai has warned that a million Zimbabweans could starve to death in a year if the political deadlock continues.

Tomaz Salomao, executive secretary of the SADC, said the compromise would mean there would have to be two home ministers, "one appointed by Zanu-PF, one by the MDC".

Mr Salomao told reporters that "the SADC was asked to rule and SADC took a decision and that's the position of SADC".

"Now it's up to the parties to implement," he said.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher, at the summit, says the call effectively backs Mr Mugabe.

Arthur Mutambara, head of an MDC breakaway party which is also involved in the agreement, said the offer was "as good as it gets".

"If we can do the following - national healing, a new constitution, economic recovery, resolve the humanitarian crisis - just doing those four things, we'll create conditions... to have a proper election in which the opposition can win," he said.

"[MDC-Tsvangirai] want more deaths, a few more weeks of deaths, a few more weeks of violation of our rights and then eventually we are going to agree."

In the proposed division of ministries, Zanu-PF also has key posts such as justice and foreign affairs, while Mr Mugabe has reportedly agreed that the MDC could have finance.

But after the MDC accused the security forces of involvement in a campaign of violence against its supporters during this year's election campaign, it insists that it has a share in running them.

Our correspondent says Mr Mugabe has accepted the deal but that Mr Tsvangirai will now hope the matter is taken from SADC and given to other bodies like the UN.

The summit also backed an immediate ceasefire in the DR Congo, where rebel fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people.

"The security situation in DRC is affecting peace and stability in the SADC and Great Lakes region," the group said, adding that it had agreed to send peacekeeping troops into the Congo if necessary.

A New Hampshire woman was kicked out of a bar – for drinking soda.

Karen Ellis, 30, was asked to leave on karaoke night, which she regularly attends with friends, because bar owner Jim Wong said he had bills to pay and couldn’t let patrons just drink Pepsi all night.

“He said he needed to pay his DJ and couldn’t afford to do that if regular customers didn’t buy alcoholic drinks. He told me to leave,” Ellis said.

A California dog owner registered his poodle to vote – and now he’s in the dog house.

Donald Miller, who signed up his pet, Barnabus, pleaded guilty to registration fraud and was fined $250 and given six months’ probation.

The 78-year-old Lafayette resident says he took the bizarre action to show how lax the registration process is.

A couple about to wed atop a Washington mountain were blown over by a strong wind – and had to get hitched in the hospital instead.

Charles Grubbs and Melody Wyman were set to exchange vows on Mount Rainier when the wind swept them and their minister into a crevasse 2,500 feet short of the summit.

All three were pulled to safety and flown to Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center, whose chaplain conducted the ceremony.

Wyman, 48, had a plaster cast on her right leg and was standing with the aid of a crutch, supported by Grubbs, 50.

Some people collect art – Glen Dalessandro collects hotel soaps and shampoos.

The 52-year-old Pennsylvania man started his eccentric hobby in 1989 and now has 800 pieces he wants to put on exhibit.

His collection was culled on stays everywhere from Motel 6s to the Waldorf-Astoria, from New York and Philadelphia to San Francisco and Page, Ariz.

“This is like talking about my children. Aren’t they beautiful? Hey, everybody’s got to collect something,” says Dalessandro, a computer programmer from Hightstown.

When a Twitter user named ‘Badman’ asked Argos when the store would be “getting da ps4 tings” at his local store Argos responded in kind.

The customer service team informed Immy ‘Badman’ Bugti, who warned that he “Ain’t waitin no more”, the customer: “Safe, we gettin sum more PS4 tings in wivin da next week y’get me”.

The customer also complained about a rude sales assistant at a Moss Side store who had “bare attitude”.

Argos replied: “Soz bout da attitude, probz avin a bad day yo”.

The tweets went viral, resulting in more than 1,500 re-tweets in the space of a few hours. Hundreds of people favourited the messages.

‘Badman’ Bugti seemed happy with the firm’s response, replying @ArgosHelpers: ‘respect. Sick guy’.