Image copyrightGERBERImage captionLucas’ father said he hoped his son’s win could help people with disabilities become more accepted
An 18-month-old boy with Down’s syndrome has been named as this year’s “spokesbaby” of the US baby food brand Gerber.
Lucas Warren from Georgia is the first child with Down’s syndrome to be named as a “Gerber baby”. His image will be used to market and represent the brand.
Gerber says his selection, from more than 140,000 entries, could help social acceptance of those with disabilities.
His mother, Cortney, said she entered his photo “on a whim”.
The Gerber baby logo began life back in 1928 when the company invited people to send in baby face portraits
The winning drawing, sent in by Dorothy Hope Smith, is still the company’s logo today. It became synonymous with the brand.
The Gerber “spokesbaby” competition is a modern incarnation, which started in 2010. People send in pictures of their child and one is chosen to represent the brand.
The “spokesbaby” does not replace the Gerber baby icon but the portrait is used to market and represent the brand.
Police in the US state of Pennsylvania say they have identified the suspect in a theft case based on a “cartoonish” sketch that was drawn by the victim.
Lancaster police say Hung Phoc Nguyen, 44, was recognisable to officers based on the black-and-white sketch, and the “modus operandi for the theft suspect”.
After police located a booking photo of the suspect, they showed it to the witness who positively identified him.
Police are now searching for Mr Nguyen and are asking the public for help.
He is accused of impersonating an employee at a market, and taking cash from the stand when a staff member walked away.
After the theft on 30 January, the employee described the man to police as being a male between the ages of 30 – 40, with a “petite build” and “possibly Asian or South American”.
In a news release, police elaborated that he was described to them as having “straight, black hair that covered his ears” and “wide-set cheekbones and a pointed chin”.
“While the sketch provided by the witness may have appeared amateurish and cartoonish, it, along with the distinctive physical descriptors, jogged the memory of at least one investigator to provide a potential suspect name,” Lancaster Police wrote in their report.
More on police sketches
Image captionIn the UK, suspect sketches are known as ‘e-fits’, and sometimes get a little wacky
The White House staff secretary had yet to receive full security clearance because his background check was ongoing, said Mr Shah during Thursday’s daily press briefing.
Media caption‘We all could have done better’ a White House spokesman said of physical abuse claims
The president’s chief of staff, John Kelly, is facing questions about when he knew of the allegations against Mr Porter.
The claims surfaced during FBI background check interviews with Mr Porter’s ex-wives.
Mr Shah said the chief of staff only “became fully aware about these allegations” on Wednesday when photographs of an ex-wife with a black eye emerged.
Mr Kelly issued a statement late on Wednesday saying he was “shocked by the new allegations” against Mr Porter, referring to the black eye.
Image copyrightCOLBIE HOLDERNESSImage captionColbie Holderness alleged Mr Porter punched her in the face on holiday in Florence, Italy
“There is no place for domestic violence in our society,” he said.
Mr Kelly had previously defended Mr Porter as “a man of true integrity and honour”.
US media report that Mr Kelly and other White House officials were aware for several months of the domestic abuse accusations because they were holding up Mr Porter’s security clearance application.
Mr Shah said President Donald Trump “was surprised by it. He was disheartened by it. He was saddened by it.”
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionRob Porter, pictured holding the document for President Trump, was accused of abuse by his two ex-wives
“He, like many of us, did not see that in Rob Porter.”
Announcing his resignation on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Porter said “these outrageous allegations are simply false”.
“I have been transparent and truthful about these vile claims, but I will not further engage publicly with a co-ordinated smear campaign,” he added.
His ex-wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, both recounted stories of his alleged misconduct.
Image copyrightBORNEBACKCEASELESSLYImage captionJennifer Willoughby told the Daily Mail she filed a protective order against Mr Porter
His first spouse, Ms Holderness, said Mr Porter had kicked her on their 2003 honeymoon in the Canary Islands.
The US government analyst also alleged he punched her in the face while they were on holiday a couple of years later in Florence, Italy.
Ms Willoughby, a motivational speaker, told US media she was married to Mr Porter from 2009-13.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionMr Porter (L), White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn (2nd L) and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Ms Willoughby said she filed a protective order against him in June 2010 after he allegedly punched the glass of the door at their Alexandria, Virginia, home.
She told the Washington Post: “He has never faced repercussions that forced him to confront his issues.”
A third woman who says she was Mr Porter’s girlfriend contacted his ex-wives with allegations of “repeated abuse”, according to CNN.
The unnamed woman was reportedly seeking advice on how to leave Mr Porter.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionMr Porter has been romantically linked with White House communications director Hope Hicks
“I work in politics, and despite Rob’s repeated abuse, some of which I think many know about, he continues to rise and I’m afraid to go against him,” the woman reportedly wrote to Ms Holderness in 2016.
Mr Porter attended Harvard with President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.
He formerly worked for Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who said he was “heartbroken” by the allegations.
According to US media reports, Mr Porter has recently been romantically linked with White House communications director Hope Hicks.
She was reportedly involved in drafting the initial White House statement about Mr Porter on Tuesday.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionStreet scene near the Gangneun Coastal Cluster, host of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games
A Canadian Olympics official has apologised for an apparent altercation between members of the Canadian and Russian delegations.
A Russian coach claimed to have been treated badly by a Canadian delegation member, but gave no details.
The verbal spat underscores tensions over the inclusion of Russian athletes at the Games amid a doping controversy.
Russia has been barred from competing but some athletes who met anti-doping criteria have been allowed to compete.
The altercation occurred in a cafeteria in the athletes village earlier this week, according to Stanislav Pozdnyakov, Russia’s chef de mission.
“We had fears that our athletes and trainers could face some kind of negative prejudice,” he said, according to Reuters.
Canadian Olympics Committee (COC) official Eric Myles on Thursday told journalists that they had been unable to confirm whether Canada was directly involved but said sorry anyway.
“First of all we don’t even know if it is a coach,” he said, adding that the delegation took the matter seriously after being told a Canadian could have been involved.
The Canadian delegation was told that the COC does not “support this kind of behaviour”.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionOlympic athletes from Russia who met anti-doping criteria can compete in the Games
“Everything is good and we’re moving forward to the Games,” Mr Myles added.
The 23rd Winter Olympics begin in the South Korean city on Friday.
Russia was barred from the Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following an investigation into state-sponsored doping.
The IOC has invited 169 Russians who have met the anti-doping criteria to compete as independent athletes.
They will compete as “Olympic athletes from Russia”, under the Olympic flag, and the Olympic anthem will be played at any medal ceremonies in which they are involved.
A further 47 athletes and coaches have appealed against their exclusion from the Games and were awaiting a decision on Friday.
The decision to include the athletes, which will make up a significant delegation, has not been without controversy.
Some observers are concerned Russia got off easily after being banned following allegations of systematic doping at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionFacebook has described a problem with illegitimate “likes”
Lawyers for exiled Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy have filed legal action against Facebook, in a case that highlights how the quest for “likes” has gripped the small Southeast Asian country’s leading politicians.
The petition in US federal courts asks the social media giant to disclose information related to the popularity of the Facebook page of Sam Rainsy’s rival, Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose Facebook page ranked third in global engagement among world leaders, according to public relations firm Burson-Marsteller.
The petition accuses Hun Sen of using state money to buy Facebook ads and says he levelled death threats against Rainsy in violation of the platform’s policies, including a speech posted to his page last week vowing to attack opposition members with rocket launchers.
“Facebook should act to prevent its platform being manipulated to help prop up dictators,” said Rainsy’s lawyer, Richard Rogers, a partner in the London and Paris-based firm Global Diligence.
Rainsy, who has lived in Paris since November 2015 in the face of a slew of court cases, accuses Hun Sen of purchasing support in countries such as India and the Philippines, where the prime minister’s page is popular and which are home to “click farms” that produce fake followers for social media accounts.
The information would clear Rainsy’s name in a number of Cambodian court cases and change Cambodian voters’ perception of Hun Sen before July’s national elections, Mr Rogers said.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionDespite calling himself a digital dinosaur, Hun Sen has a big social media presence
“If you’re going to vote for the winner, [Facebook] is one of the ways to discern who is the winner,” Mr Rogers said. Hun Sen’s current, allegedly fraudulent Facebook popularity “shows that he’s still liked even though he commits all of these human rights abuses”, he added.
Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 33 years, adopted Facebook with gusto in the aftermath of his Cambodian People’s Party’s near-upset at the hands of Mr Rainsy’s opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in the 2013 national elections. His page has showcased a more accessible, selfie-prone strongman who likes strolls with grandchildren and swims in the ocean.
The light mood on the page contrasts with an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the run-up to the July vote.
Without the CNRP, most observers say the upcoming national election lacks any credibility.
Rainsy and other critics have also cried foul on Hun Sen’s online popularity. About 45% of Hun Sen’s Facebook followers have accounts in Cambodia, according to social media monitoring site Socialbakers.com, compared with almost 80% of Rainsy’s followers and 90% for Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionSam Rainsy currently lives in France
Huy Vannak, an undersecretary of state for Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior and head of a pro-government journalists union, refused to comment on Rainsy’s Facebook case beyond calling it “stupid” and defending restrictions on free speech on Facebook.
“Cambodia, just like other civilized nations, is not a free place for criminal acts and defamation,” he wrote in a message.
Facebook spokesperson Genevieve Grdina declined to comment on the specifics of Rainsy’s case, citing company policy, but said it was in the company’s financial interest to root out fakes that undermined advertisers’ trust in the platform.
Publishers complained of plummeting web traffic, although Phannara Leang, web editor for the popular independent outlet Post Khmer, said last month visits to the site had recovered to pre-test levels.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionFacebook says it is in its interests to root out fake accounts and fake “likes”
In recent years the Cambodian government has stepped up its prosecution of Facebook critics, including a woman who in April posted a video of herself tossing a shoe at a sign featuring Hun Sen’s face.
Critics likened it to a pro-government propaganda machine in a setup similar to censorship units in Vietnam and China – both close allies of Hun Sen.
Mr Vannak said he didn’t know about the group but added that “we do support any effort for the interest of Cambodians.”
Meanwhile, experts are divided over how significant Rainsy’s lawsuit is.
Hang Vitou, head of the Young Analyst Group, argued that Cambodians weren’t likely to be fooled by inflated social media likes, and called Rainsy’s case “useless.”
“Hun Sen uses his Facebook page to gather support from the public but it is not as effective as he thinks,” Vitou said.
“People just need to follow the prime minister’s work and activities, [but] that does not mean that they support him.”
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionThe Clint Eastwood film stars the three Americans who stopped the real-life attack
A lawyer representing a man accused of a foiled French terror attack has spoken out against a film by Clint Eastwood depicting the incident.
The film – The 15:17 to Paris – is based on events on board a Thalys express train when a gunman tried to attack passengers in August 2015.
The film, starring the men who stopped the attacker, opened on Wednesday.
A lawyer for suspect Ayoub El-Khazzani has asked for showings to be suspended while a judge reviews evidence.
Sarah Mauger-Poliak said the film was a violation of her client’s rights because it presents a “fictionalised” and “one-sided” view to the public as fact.
“I am aware that my client is not an angel but let justice do its work,” she said.
Mr Khazzani, from Morocco, was found with a range of weapons including a Kalashnikov assault rifle on board the Amsterdam-to-Paris train. He is alleged to have links to radical Islam.
He was eventually subdued by some of the passengers after opening fire, including three American friends who star as themselves in the Clint Eastwood-directed re-creation.
Image copyrightAFP/SOCIAL NETWORKImage captionMr Khazzani was heavily armed when he was overpowered by passengers
Off-duty military servicemen, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, and their friend Anthony Sadler, were backpacking through Europe on holiday at the time of the attack.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe men were awarded France’s top Legion d’Honneur medal alongside British businessman Chris Norman
Mr Eastwood’s film is the latest in a series of movies he has made about real-life people in extraordinary situations.
He has also directed films about pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who landed his damaged plane on the Hudson River, and about record-breaking US Navy Seal sniper Chris Kyle.
The 15:17 to Paris is released in the US and UK on Friday, but has been met with overall poor reviews in France at its opening.
Media captionOne MEP, Italy’s Angelo Ciocca, said the debate was a waste of time
The European Parliament has backed a review of daylight saving time, a move that could stop clocks switching back and forward between winter and summer.
EU lawmakers called for the European Commission to launch a “full evaluation” of the current system and come up with new plans, if necessary.
Supporters of the current system say it saves energy and reduces traffic accidents.
But critics argue it can cause long-term health problems.
Current EU law stipulates a common date in spring and autumn on which clocks must be put forward and back by one hour in all 28 member states.
The idea is that it provides extra evening daylight in summer and extra morning daylight in winter.
But opinions remain divided all over the world about the benefits of the system.
Last month, Finland called for daylight saving to be abolished across the EU after a petition gathered more than 70,000 signatures from citizens asking the state to give up the practice.
During the debate in Strasbourg, France, MEP Karima Delli said moving clocks forward to summer time left people tired and led to increased accidents.
“Studies that show an increase in road accidents or sleep trouble during the time change must be taken seriously”, the French MEP said, adding that estimated energy savings were “not conclusive”.
Belgian lawmaker Hilde Vautmans, however, said that changing daylight saving could mean either losing an hour of daylight every day for seven months in summer or sending children to school in the dark for five months over winter.
Russian MPs said permanent summer time had created stress and health problems, especially in northern Russia where mornings would remain darker for longer during the harsh winter months.
Image captionKentucky Senator Rand Paul accused fellow Republicans of “hypocrisy”
A US Congress budgetary vote to avert another government shutdown is on hold after a senator accused lawmakers of “spending us into oblivion”.
Hours before federal funding expires, the Senate was hoping to pass the mammoth two-year spending bill.
But Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has demanded a debate in the chamber on his amendment to kill the bipartisan deal.
The bill has angered Republican fiscal hawks, while Democrats are upset about the lack of an immigration concession.
The legislation faces an even tougher test in the House of Representatives, though Republican Speaker Paul Ryan said he believes they can muscle it through.
However, hopes for a quick vote in the upper chamber on Thursday evening dimmed as Senator Paul stood up.
In a doom-laden speech, he angrily charged his fellow Republicans with budgetary profligacy.
“I ran for office because I was very critical of President Obama’s trillion-dollar deficits,” he said.
“Now we have Republicans, hand in hand with Democrats, offering us trillion-dollar deficits.
“I can’t in all good honesty, in all good faith, just look the other way just because my party is now complicit in the deficits.”
This would be “the very definition of hypocrisy”, he added.
The White House said it was preparing federal agencies for a shutdown.
Funding to keep the government open runs out at midnight when a one-month spending bill expires.
Failure to pass a spending agreement led to a three-day government shutdown last month.
Image copyrightSAUL LOEB
What’s in this bill?
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said the package would increase spending by “just shy” of $300bn (£216bn).
The bill contains $165bn of additional defence spending and $131bn in domestic spending, including funding for healthcare, infrastructure and tackling the US opioid crisis, reports Reuters news agency.
Officials at the White House say the deal would also increase the debt ceiling until March 2019.
Why are some Democrats unhappy?
Despite the imprimatur of their Senate leader Chuck Schumer, who says the budget accord will “break the long cycle of spending crises”, some Democrats are voicing discontent that the bill does not address immigration.
His House of Representatives equivalent, Nancy Pelosi, said on Thursday morning she was opposed to the 650-page spending plan, but would not order rank-and-file Democrats to vote against it.
The California congresswoman has called for the bill to include a provision shielding so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who entered the US illegally as children, from deportation.
Media captionTop Democratic Nancy Pelosi breaks record in eight-hour speech
Obama-era guarantees for those immigrants were cancelled by Mr Trump and are set to expire next month.
Illinois representative Luis Gutierrez, one of the leading congressional advocates for immigrants, is urging colleagues to vote against the plan.
“Don’t collude with this administration,” he said.
Why are some Republicans opposed?
While the spending bill’s splurge for the Pentagon has delighted the national security wing of the party, fiscal conservatives are up in arms about ramifications for the nation’s federal debt.
Ohio congressman Warren Davidson told National Public Radio: “It adds to an awful lot of spending. It’s not compassionate to bankrupt America.”
Image copyrightFACEBOOKImage captionBruce McArthur was arrested on 18 January
Canadian police say they have found the remains of six people at a property connected to a suspected serial killer.
Landscaper Bruce McArthur, 66, was charged with the deaths of five men near Toronto’s gay village in January.
Police previously uncovered the remains of three people in flower pots on a property where he stored his tools.
On Thursday, that number went up to six. Police have identified one of the remains as belonging to Andrew Kinsman, who went missing in June.
Mr McArthur is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Mr Kinsman, 49, Majeed Kayhan, 58, Soroush Mahmudi, 50, Dean Lisowick 47, and Salim Esen, 44.
Image copyrightTORONTO POLICE SERVICESImage captionPolice have identified one of the six remains as belonging to Andrew Kinsman
So far all of the remains have been found in planters inside a nondescript property at 53 Mallory Crescent in the Toronto neighbourhood of Leaside.
Mr McArthur had a deal with the home’s elderly residents to store his landscaping equipment there in exchange for free lawn care, according to the authorities.
Police say the residents are free to return home now, but investigators will continue to excavate the backyard for more remains.
Image copyrightTORONTO POLICEImage captionClockwise from left: Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Marmudi, Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman
They have asked anyone who hired Mr McArthur as a landscaper to contact them and are working with police in other jurisdictions.
Frozen winter temperatures mean it could take longer than a week to dig out the backyard, Det Sgt Hank Idsinga told media on Thursday.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionMr Hulot has described the rumours of sexual harassment as “shameful”
A minister in French President Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet has denied rumours of sexual harassment, two weeks after another was accused of rape.
Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot, one of Mr Macron’s most popular cabinet members, rejects any wrongdoing.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has offered his support, saying there was “no reason to doubt his words”.
Last month, prosecutors reopened an inquiry into rape allegations against Budget Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionMr Darmanin also denies separate allegations against him
A woman described as a former call girl accuses him of pressuring her into sex in 2009 in exchange for helping her clear her name in a legal dispute.
She filed a complaint against Mr Darmanin shortly after the May 2017 presidential election, but the investigation was closed after she failed to attend questioning by police, reports say.
After the preliminary investigation was reopened, Mr Darmanin’s lawyers accused her of a “crude attempt to harm” the minister’s reputation and said he was suing her for slander.
A conservative politician with working-class roots, Mr Darmanin was expelled from the centre-right Republicans party last year for joining Mr Macron’s Republic on the Move movement.
The well-known presenter of a TV adventure programme, Mr Hulot has campaigned for environmental protection for decades.
Mr Macron was the first president to successfully convince the popular environmentalist to join his government after Mr Hulot turned down previous invitations from Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.
Some of the allegations against Mr Hulot are due to be published in a French magazine on Friday, but he has been the subject of rumours for some weeks.
The environment minister was questioned by BFMTV on Thursday about accusations from “the granddaughter of a famous politician” dating back to 1997. Mr Hulot admitted the woman had filed a complaint in 2008, but said that the case had been dismissed.
“I was questioned at my own request and investigators very quickly concluded that there was nothing suggesting the case should be followed up,” he said.
“It hurts, when it’s wrongful and unfounded. Yesterday, my children were in tears,” Mr Hulot told the channel, describing the situation as “a nightmare” and the rumours as “shameful”.
Mr Philippe said Mr Hulot was not expected to resign as he had not been placed under judicial investigation.
Mr Hulot also denied suggestions that a former female colleague had accused him of harassment.
“The worst thing is that she has already been questioned by some of your colleagues and she gave the same answer,” he told BFMTV.
The colleague in question has also denied the rumours, adding: “I have no comment to make on a case that is not one,” French media report.
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