Republican and Herald from Pottsville, Pennsylvania • A4

NATIONWORLD 4 POTTSVILLE (PA.) REPUBLICAN HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2018 NEWS IN BRIEF President discusses violence with video game execs, critics BY CATHERINE LUCEY ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON President Donald Trump raised concerns about the graphic depiction of violence in video games at a White House meeting Thursday with members of the industry and some of their most vocal critics. Searching for ways to respond to last month's Florida school shooting, Trump has questioned the impact of video games, although decades of research have failed to find a link between gun violence and graphic depictions of violence in games. Meeting attendees said he sought to hear from all sides. "He asked a lot of questions and he raised concerns with the violent nature of these games and asked the question: Is this causing the kids to have (this) violent behavior?" Rep. Vicky Hartzler, said.

Those attending the meeting from the video game industry included representatives of the Entertainment Software Association and the Entertainment Software Rating Board and two CEOs of video game publishers. Also attending were a representative of the Parents Television Council, a conservative watchdog group, as well as conservative activist Brent Bozell a longtime critic of video game violence who founded the council and the author of a book linking mass killings to violent video games. PTC program director Melissa Henson said she sought to convey the challenges of keeping violent games away from kids "even for the most diligent parent." She described the meeting as a listening session, saying there were no decisions about next steps. "I don't think there are easy answers and I don't think that we're going to be able to figure out the solution in the course of a one-hour conversation," Henson said. Industry representatives argued in advance of the meeting that there was no correlation between video games and gun violence.

The Entertainment Software Association released a statement saying studies "have found no connection between games and real-life violence" and noting that games are played in other countries that don't have the same level of gun violence. They expressed hope that the meeting will "provide the opportunity to have a fact-based conversation about video game ratings and the tools we provide to make informed entertainment choices." Trump has focused on video games as he seeks solutions to deal with the scourge of guns in the wake of the Florida school shooting that killed 17 people. After weeks of public deliberation including expressing support for some gun control measures Trump has not yet outlined what he would like to see in legislation. "i i II II 7 I II II 1 r- V- 1 is a II II II 31 II II ii it ii Study finds false stories travel faster than truth 1 lip. -Xlr II 7 itii im a', FA-if tUf I IF II i D- PTT-AiVi rar-inr-irm RET- TiT ASSOCIATED PRESS Protesters with umbrellas lead a Women's Day march Thursday in Warsaw, Poland.

A few thousand women and men chanting women's rights slogans marched through the city to mark the International Women's Day. International women's day: a time for protests, strikes Syria aid on hold; U.N. appeals for calm BEIRUT (AP) A top U.N. aid official appealed to the Syrian government and its Russian backers for a cessation of hostilities in eastern Ghouta on Thursday when a second convoy with desperately needed aid was postponed after government forces split the enclave in two, creating an evolving, unpredictable situation on the ground. Jan Egeland said it is "impossible" to deliver aid to the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus amid the current fighting, which he described as the worst ever.

"I'm very worried for a repeat of very many of the bad things we saw in the final days of the battle of Aleppo but to some extent this is worse," he told The Associated Press in an interview from Oslo, Norway. Recapturing eastern Ghouta, a short drive away from the Syrian capital, would mark the biggest victory yet for President Bashar Assad in the seven year war. It would also be the worst setback for rebels since the opposition was ousted from eastern Aleppo in late 2016 after a similar siege and bombing campaign. Eastern Ghouta is larger and more populated, with some 400,000 people believed to be living there, trapped under a relentless air and ground bombardment and a crippling years-long siege. More than 800 people have been killed just in the past three weeks.

In rapid advances overnight, troops and allied militiamen seized more than half of the area, including a stretch of farmland, isolating the northern and southern parts of the territory, cutting links between the rebels and further squeezing opposition fighters and civilians trapped inside, state media and a war monitor reported. Videos released by the opposition's volunteer rescue group, also known as the White Helmets, captured the inferno in eastern Ghouta, including a shell exploding as an ambulance sped through the street after loading in an apparently wounded person. Miss. OKs law banning abortion after 15 weeks JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Mississippi lawmakers on Thursday passed what would be the nation's most restrictive abortion law, making the procedure illegal in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The state's only abortion provider pledged to sue, and the attorney general said he expected a tough legal battle ahead. Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature appeared not only to expect, but to encourage such challenges in hopes the issue will eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion, states were permitted to restrict abortions after viability the point when the fetus has a reasonable chance of surviving under normal conditions outside the uterus.

The ruling offered no legal definition of viability, saying it could range between 24 and 28 weeks into a pregnancy. The Mississippi measure "seems like a pretty simple bill designed to test the viability line that the Supreme Court has drawn," said David Forte, a law professor at Ohio's Cleveland State University. The House voted 75-34 in favor of the bill, and Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said again Thursday that he would sign it. The Senate passed the measure on Tuesday.

Danish inventor denies killing journalist in sub COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) The Danish inventor accused of torturing and killing Swedish journalist Kim Wall during a private submarine trip before dismembering her body strongly denied killing her, asserting at his trial Thursday that she died accidentally because of a pressure problem in the submarine. Peter Madsen, who is accused of torturing Wall before he either cut her throat or strangled her on his submarine, also denied he was sexually attracted to her. Sitting on his hands as he testified at the opening of his trial in Copenhagen City Court, Madsen appeared irritated at times as he brushed off any suggestion of sexual activity with Wall before or after her death. Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen read from a psychiatric report describing Madsen as an intelligent man "with psychopathic tendencies." Madsen himself told the court Thursday that he was "a promiscuous person." BY SETH BORENSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Twitter loves lies. A new study finds that false information on the social media network travels six times faster than the truth and reaches far more people.

And you can't blame bots; it's us, say the authors of the largest study of online misinformation. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology looked at more than 126,000 stories tweeted millions of times between 2006 and the end of 2016 before Donald Trump took office but during the combative presidential campaign. They found that "fake news" sped through Twitter "farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information," according to the study in Thursday's journal Science "No matter how you slice it, falsity wins out," said co-author Deb Roy who runs MIT's Laboratory for Social Machines and is a former chief media scientist at Twitter. Twitter funded the study but had no say in the outcome, according to the researchers. The scientists calculated that the average false story takes about 10 hours to reach 1,500 Twitter users, versus about 60 hours for the truth.

On average, false stories reaches 35 percent more people than true news. While true news stories almost never got retweeted to 1,000 people, the top 1 percent of the false ones got to as many as 100,000 people. And when the researchers looked at how stories cascade how they link from one person to another like a family tree false information reached as many as 24 generations, while true information maxed out at a dozen. Concern over bogus stories online has escalated in recent months because of evidence the Russians spread disinformation on social media during the 2016 presidential campaign to sow discord in the U.S. and damage Hillary Clinton.

Social media companies have experimented with using computer algorithms and human fact-checkers to try to weed out false information and abuse online. Twitter earlier this month said it is seeking help from outside experts to better deal with the problem. And Facebook this week announced a partnership with The Associated Press to identify and debunk false and misleading stories about the midterm elections. ASSOCIATED PRESS BY DAVID CRARY ASSOCIATED PRESS A 24-hour strike by millions of Spanish women. A crackdown in France on companies violating gender-equal pay policies.

In Russia, a candid apology from a powerful legislator to women he sexually harassed. Many of the International Women's Day events on Thursday powerfully echoed the MeToo movement that has mobilized women against sexual violence and workplace harassment. Demonstrators filled the streets in several Asian cities, including Manila, Seoul and New Delhi. Clad in pink and purple shirts, the activists in Manila lambasted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, calling him among the worst violators of women's rights in Asia. Human rights groups have condemned Duterte's sexist remarks, including a suggestion that troops shoot female communist rebels in the genitals.

In Pakistan's largest city Karachi, a throng of activists was joined by a victim of one of the acid attacks frequently perpetrated in the country by embittered men. Black glasses covered part of her badly burned face. Hundreds of women gathered in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, to commemorate the occasion and urge more progress on women's political rights, education and safety During An activist places a doll representing one of the 41 girls that died in a fire one year ago at the state-run Virgen de la Asuncion youth shelter on Thursday during a rally to mark International Women's Day in Guatemala City, Guatemala. ers, but in the positions of management it is always men," the 38-year-old woman said. French companies that treat women unequally may soon face new pressure and penalties.

President Emmanuel Macron says his government is going to name and shame such companies. He predicted positive changes "because no one wants to be the worst student in the class." Another government initiative would fine companies with more than 50 employees if there is an "unjustified" gender wage gap. Taliban rule, many women would have been afraid to leave their homes. In Spain, major unions estimated that 5.3 million people joined the strike, which targeted gender violence and unequal pay The day culminated with street protests in scores of cities. The theme was "If we stop, the world stops." Social services worker Teresa Sonsur, protesting in Madrid, said she wanted to end workplace discrimination at her agency "The women are doing all the hard work, dealing with the custom U.K.

police: 21 treated after ex-spy poisoning BY JILL LAWLESS, GREGORY KATZ AND DANICA KIRKA ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON Around 21 people have had hospital treatment after a nerve-agent attack on an ex-Russian spy British police said Thursday as the U.K. vowed strong action against whoever was responsible for the "brazen and reckless" act. Three people remain hospitalized after the poisoning Sunday in the southern English city of Salisbury former spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter and a British police officer who tried to help them. Health authorities say there is little risk to the wider public. But Wiltshire county acting police chief Kier Pritchard said "around speculate on who is behind the attack, but many experts have focused on Russia because of the similarity to the 2006 killing of another former Russian spy who was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium-210.

A public inquiry found that Russia was responsible for killing Alexander Litvinenko, and that President Vladimir Putin probably approved it. The Russian government has denied any involvement in the Litvinenko killing or the attempted killing of Skripal, a former Russian agent who had served jail time in his homeland for spying for Britain before being freed in a spy swap. 21 people" have had treatment, including the Skripals, who were found unconscious on a bench. Pritchard said some of the 21 had had blood tests, or received support and advice. Previously authorities had said only that "several" people had sought treatment.

The ex-spy and his daughter remain in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital. A police officer who came to their aid, Sgt. Nick Bailey, is hospitalized in a serious condition, though he is conscious and talking, officials said. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said enormous resources are being devoted to determining who poisoned Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia. They were found unconscious on a bench, triggering a police inquiry headed by counterterrorism detectives.

"The use of a nerve agent on British soil is a brazen and reckless act," Rudd told Parliament. "This was attempted murder in the most cruel and public way" Rudd said Britain would respond strongly when it is clear who is to blame. The Russian Embassy in London, which has mocked other British politicians for suggesting Russian involvement, tweeted that it agreed with Rudd: "First evidence then conclusions on Mr. Skripal's case. Responsible political approach." Police have refused to publicly.