The body of an Ohio woman was found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park late Tuesday afternoon, a week after she went missing while hiking with her daughter near Clingmans Dome, according to park officials.

Search crews found the body of Mitzie Sue “Susan” Clements approximately two miles west of the Clingmans Dome parking area and three-quarters of a mile south of the Appalachian Trail, according to a park news release.

Her cause of death is unclear at this time.

Clements, 53, of Cleves, Ohio, had been missing since Sept. 25, when she and her daughter became separated during a hike on the Forney Ridge Trail, roughly a quarter-mile from Andrews Bald.

The daughter reported Clements missing shortly after hiking ahead and losing sight of her mother around 5 p.m., according to park spokeswoman Julena Campbell.

Search effort had manpower, technology

Park officials searched the immediate area that night without success. The next day, a group of seasoned searchers spent the night on the Appalachian Trail, attempting to find Clements and interview any hikers in the area.

The search grew in size and scope as crews braved rain, fog, wind and temperatures in the 40s to scour the densely wooded, mountainous area of the park, which straddles Tennessee and North Carolina.

Officials closed Clingmans Dome Road and set up a command post there. Verizon brought in a portable cell tower to help fix the spotty reception in the area. Crews employed helicopters, canine teams and specialized search-and-rescue drones as the number of agencies involved continued to climb. By Tuesday, more than 100 people from 45 organizations had joined the search.

Teams used satellite GPS units to keep track of which areas had already been searched. Scientists with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory stitched together aerial photographs from their drones, assigned geographic coordinates to each pixel, and used the composite images to better understand the treacherous terrain.

Campbell, the park spokeswoman, said officials also worked with doctors who shed insight into the types of behavior Clements might exhibit under various circumstances.

“There’s a lot that goes into managing a search, a lot of technology and psychological science as to what people do in these situations,” Campbell said Tuesday.

Clements worked for City of Cincinnati, had 3 children

Clements worked as an accounting technician in the administration department of the City of Cincinnati’s Metropolitan Sewer District, according to a statement from the district. Cleves, the small town Clements hailed from, is about 16 miles northwest of Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld said words couldn’t do justice to the sadness of Clements’ death, whom he called a “beloved mother, friend and longtime employee of the city of Cincinnati.”

“We will pull together to do everything we can to support her family, friends and co-workers during this time of grieving,” he said. “My colleagues and I, and the whole city workforce, will also ensure we find a meaningful way to remember and honor her.”

Co-worker David Stephens, an IT service manager for the sewer district, posted on social media, calling Clements “one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met. Always a cheerful good morning and some small talk on her way past my office to get her daily ice water.”

Clements’ family did not speak to the media during the search except to say she was a “wonderful mother to three children.” She was hiking with her youngest daughter on this trip.

A GoFundMe campaign that appears to have been created by Elizabeth Clements, another of Clements’ daughters, had raised $3,500 as of Tuesday night.

“Since my family is from the Cincinnati, Ohio area, we have decided to start a GoFundMe page to help cover the unexpected travel expenses that come with staying in the area for this search process,” the fundraising page reads.

“More than anything, we would appreciate your continued prayers for my mom to be located safe and soon. We are so incredibly thankful for the many organizations helping make this search possible, and for each individual search member for being so kind, supportive, and positive throughout this entire process.”

The City of Cincinnati said Clements’ brother-in-law, who is a firefighter, traveled to the park with some of his colleagues to help out with the search. Park visitors reported seeing her former husband and other family members passing out flyers bearing her picture.

Park officials previously said foul play was not suspected in Clements’ disappearance. They did not immediately offer further details after her body was found late Tuesday afternoon.

“Our hearts are with the family and friends of Ms. Clements,” the park said in the release. “The park would like to extend our appreciation to the many agencies and organizations that participated in the search effort.”

Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Max Londberg contributed to this story.

 

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BEIJING – Chinese media say tax authorities have ordered “X-Men” star Fan Bingbing to pay taxes and fines worth hundreds of millions of yuan but would spare her from criminal prosecution.

The official Xinhua News Agency’s announcement Wednesday ended months of speculation over the fate of the actress since she disappeared from public view in June amid reports she was being investigated for tax fraud.

The report gave no indication as to Fan’s whereabouts but indicated her agent was being held by police for allegedly obstructing the investigation.

Xinhua cited tax authorities as saying Fan would not be held criminally accountable as long as she paid the fines and taxes on time.

The report described unpaid taxes, fines and late fees amounting to nearly 900 million yuan or more than $130 million.

More: The two actresses on ‘Forbes’ highest-paid list you may not know

 

 

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LONDON — Shares in luxury car maker Aston Martin dropped below their IPO offer price on the first day of dealing in London on Wednesday.

Aston Martin, famous for making James Bond’s cars, priced its shares at £19 in its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. It valued the business at £4.3 billion. After reaching an early high of £19.15, shares had dropped to £18.4080 as of 8.40 a.m. GMT (3.40 a.m. ET) on the London Stock Exchange.

The dip comes despite the fact that Aston Martin had already priced shares on the lower end of its guided IPO range. The carmaker had initially hoped it could sell shares for as much as £22.50 a piece.

“Some investors have expressed caution that the valuation seems a little on the high side, when compared to Ferrari, and the early price action certainly lends some support to that analysis,” Michael Hewson, the chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in an email.

“It is true that Aston Martin has only just recently returned to profit last year with revenues of £876 million and pre-tax profits of £87 million, after a whopping £163 million loss the year before.”

Aston Martin, whose cars sell for hundreds of thousands, has been bankrupt seven times across its 105-year history, which may give some investors pause for thought.

The early performance also underlines the apparent weakness of the London market when it comes to IPOs. Last week Funding Circle, one of the world’s biggest peer-to-peer lenders, struggled to manage an opening day share price pop in its £1.3 billion IPO. Shares have fallen by 20% since then.

Neil Wilson, the chief market analyst at Markets.com, told Business Insider: “Investors are clearly shying away from UK risk assets. FTSE performance is driven by sterling, really. International investors don’t need exposure to UK assets so maybe shying away. Certainly, ever since Brexit, there hasn’t been the volume of foreign money in UK market.”

Wilson added that Aston Martin’s performance is likely not helped by fears within the wider auto sector about the impact of Brexit and ongoing global trade wars. Last month Swedish car maker Volvo said it was delaying its IPO plans due to trade war fears. On Tuesday, the owner of British car maker Vauxhaull warned of “dramatic consequences” for its manufacturing if there’s a “no deal” Brexit.

As part of the IPO, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer is in-line to collect shares worth £22 million in the luxury carmaker over the next four years.

The United Nations’ top court has issued an interim order that requests the United States to lift sanctions linked to humanitarian goods and civil aviation imposed against Iran.

Tehran had urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, to order Washington to suspend the sanctions temporarily while it hears Iran’s case in full, a process that could take years.

More soon…

Despite their public displays of mutual appreciation, President Donald Trump and his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, appear to be on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to drinking alcohol.

Trump, who has notoriously abstained from alcohol, described it as a vice that could potentially destroy the “mind for the long term.” Trump’s refrain from drinking was also reportedly influenced by his older brother, Fred Trump, Jr., who died at age 43 in 1981.

“I had a brother, Fred. Great guy, best-looking guy, best personality, much better than mine,” Trump said, speaking at an opiod crisis awareness event in 2017. “But he had a problem. He had a problem with alcohol. And he would tell me: ‘Don’t drink. Don’t drink.’”

“He would say it over, and over, and over again,” Trump said at the time. “And to this day, I’ve never had a drink. And I have no longing for it. I have no interest in it.”

Despite Trump’s reluctance to drink, the former real-estate mogul at one time sold a Trump-branded vodka. The product was eventually discontinued.

Andrew Harnik/AP

Kavanaugh, on the other hand, has been scrutinized for the drinking he engaged in during his high school and college years.

During his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, in which he defended himself against claims that he sexually assaulted Dr. Christine Ford at a house party in the 1980s, Kavanaugh professed his affinity for beer, mentioning the word 29 times, according to a tally compiled by The Washington Post.

“I drank beer with my friends. Almost everyone did,” Kavanaugh said at his hearing. “Sometimes I had too many beers. Sometimes others did. I liked beer. I still like beer. But I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone,” Kavanaugh said.

Those particular remarks caught Trump’s attention. The president said at a press conference this week that he was “surprised at how vocal” Kavanaugh was about his drinking habits.

“And he’s had a little bit of difficulty,” Trump said on Monday. “I mean, he talked about things that happened when he drank.”

Despite Trump’s continued support of Kavanaugh and consternation toward his accusers, Trump said he did not like the optics of Kavanaugh’s drinking habits, according to several advisers cited by The Post.

Following his testimony, Kavanaugh’s accusers and former classmates claimed he mischaracterized his school-age drinking.

Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images; Samantha Lee/Business Insider

“The president doesn’t like drinking, and so Kavanaugh talking about how much he likes beer put Trump off,” a person who was briefed on Trump’s conversations said to The Post.

“It’s not disqualifying or anything serious, but he doesn’t like drinkers.”

Consequently, White House aides are said to be mindful of drinking around Trump, because it may evoke a “lesser view of them,” according to a former official cited in a Politico report.

Trump’s confidantes highlighted one case in which a senior Trump official’s drinking attracted the president’s ire, according to Politico. As Republicans desperately fought to rally enough votes to defeat Obamacare, Tom Price, the former secretary of Health and Human Services, landed on Trump’s radar after being photographed drinking at a bar.

The president’s “frustration was amped up 10% by the fact that he was at a bar,” a former White House official told Politico.

Warning: This story contains plot details from Tuesday’s episode of This Is Us, “A Philadelphia Story.”

“A Philadelphia Story” spotlighted a kindly, beloved, big-hearted paternal presence on This Is Us — nope, not that one, the other one.

The second episode of the NBC family drama’s third season returned viewers to Randall’s late biological father, William (played by the Emmy-winning Ron Cephas Jones), who was seen here five years sober, welcoming a new tenant to his building and community, and just being the generous, decent soul we know him to be. But a deeper story of the episode centered on Randall (Sterling K. Brown), who made a heartbreaking, pained decision as a college-bound teenager and received not one but two bruising blows in the present, as he grappled again with issues of his identity and background as a transracial adoptee while joining his two worlds. Meanwhile, Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Toby (Chris Sullivan) revealed their IVF journey to Rebecca (Mandy Moore), who took a beat to come around to this high-risk procedure, but not before a jittery, unmedicated Toby lost his temper. And Kevin (Justin Hartley) invited the Pearson crew to the premiere of his Ron Howard war movie, and although new not-girlfriend Zoe (Melanie Liburd) seemed to want to keep her distance, she texted the equivalent of a door opening after the fact.

But that look on Randall’s face at the end of the episode? Sorry, Kate, you’ve got some damage control to do. Let’s grab a celebratory fro-yo, fellow milk enthusiasts, ponder the planet’s dwindling water supply, and get the real “Story” from the bookkeepers, This Is Us showrunners Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This was a key episode for Randall in two different time periods. In the past, he turns down a chance to learn more about his African-American heritage at Howard to stay with his adopted family. In the present day, he is honoring that heritage by rehabbing his biological father’s building and rec center. It’s tough to watch him rejected by both sides of his background — first by Chichi [Yetide Badaki], who tells him that he’s not one of them, and then later when he finds out that Kate said that she was the only one in the family who would carry on the legacy of Jack [Milo Ventimiglia]. What do these rejections do to him, and which comment impacts him more?
ELIZABETH BERGER: I think they both do. So much of Randall’s life is this struggle to come to terms with his own identity. And I think he feels so connected to his black identity. He feels so connected to his adoptive parents and his family, but to always feel like you’re moving between worlds causes a lot of internal conflict. We’re glad that it’s painful, because that was what we were going for. [Laughs] But, yeah, it’s something that we’re going to continue to see him grapple with and come to terms with throughout the course of the season.

Would you describe it more as a journey of discovery or self-acceptance, or maybe both, as he seeks to carry on the legacies of both his dads?
ISAAC APTAKER: Both, yeah. Randall has such a unique backstory, and he’s always searching to figure out: Where do I belong? What’s my identity? Where’s my place in this world? So I think those things go together.

He’s been so embraced and loved by the Pearsons, but there’s always been that underlying tension that he’s different. Kate’s comment to Kevin that she’s the only one who’s going to pass on a piece of Jack tapped into that. He’s always had a strong bond with Kate, though. What will that remark do to their relationship in the short term?
BERGER: We’ll see next week what it does to their relationship. Kate loves her brother so much and feels so connected to him. And I think she was coming from a place of feeling so intensely about her own situation that she wasn’t choosing every word correctly.
APTAKER: She didn’t even say that to Randall’s face. She said it not even thinking, when he wasn’t there. So that this will get reported back to him — it hits him in a totally different way than she ever would have intended.
BERGER: But she will definitely have to deal with the consequences of not choosing her words a little more carefully.

Young Randall sees his mom — and his siblings in turmoil — after Jack’s death. After celebrating his admission to Howard at his friend’s house and seeing their family together, he calls Howard and withdraws his acceptance, saying that he needs to stay home for family. I imagine this won’t sit well with Rebecca. What can you say about his next steps to college? Is a reversal in the works in the next few episodes? And we know he met Beth at college…
APTAKER: We’re all hoping for a reversal. You’re going to see as we play more in the ’90s that Randall’s really the one who’s stepping up here and feeling like he can’t go all the way to Washington right now and leave his family in the state that they’re in. So that rejection of the admission is going to stick here. But, like you said, it does lead to him meeting Beth. So, we know as painful as that moment is, there is that silver lining — or, I guess, a gold lining.
BERGER: Yeah, we’ll find out this season. And we’ll see that Randall is so connected to Rebecca and feels so protective of her that it’s going to be a real struggle for him to not devote himself fully to taking care of her, which obviously should not fall on a 17-year-old boy. So watching him find that balance and be there for her, but also be there for himself, is something we’re going to be tracking throughout the season.

It was refreshing to see William back. We didn’t get to see him as much last season as we would have liked. Is this the primary way that we’ll be seeing him in the next batch of episodes, as Randall rehabs this building?
BERGER: We were really excited about how natural this felt with seeing Randall in this neighborhood and this building that his father inhabited, and then being able to flash to William in the same space felt so cosmically cool and exciting to us, that in this case it was extremely organic.
APTAKER: We love this William, and we love him with Chi Chi. But we also love to see him with our characters, and he hadn’t met them yet in this time. So in terms of time with William, we really jump all around and find tons of different ways to use him, both in this building world and also once he’s met our Pearsons.

Confession time. Did you know you were going to kill us with showing him holding Chi Chi’s baby?
BERGER: [Laughs] When we all watched it in the edit bay, we were like, “Well, that’s the most powerful moment of the episode right there!” Even though there are others that we love as well.
APTAKER: In the writers room, it started to question of, “I wonder if William has held a baby since he gave up Randall.” And we were like, “I don’t know. He doesn’t have a lot of friends with babies, so quite possibly not.” And that really got us excited.

NEXT PAGE: “What you’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg of where Toby’s going to go.”

Image: SOPA Images / Contributor / gettyimages

Popular ad platform image sharing platform Instagram is down, apparently globally. 

The desktop version of the site only produces an ugly “5xx Server Error” text — we don’t even get a nice image. Mobile version of the app also isn’t responding. 

Instagram outages aren’t all that uncommon — we’ve seen quite a few over the years — but this one appears to be total. We’ve tried accessing the site from the U.S., Australia and several European countries and the result was the same. 

Image: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Down Detector currently shows people complaining about Instagram being down in these regions as well, though there aren’t too many complaints right now. 

The social network has been in the spotlight recently as its co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who sold Instagram to Facebook for $1 billion in 2012, have stepped down from the company. 

We’ve pinged Instagram for comment on the outage and will update this article when we hear from them. 

Newly elected Iraqi President Barham Salih has named independent Shia candidate Adel Abdul Mahdi as prime minister-designate, ending months of deadlock after an inconclusive national election in May.

The presidency, traditionally occupied by a Kurd, is a largely ceremonial position, but the vote for Salih in parliament on Tuesday was a key step towards forming a new government.

Under Iraq‘s constitution, Salih – a 58-year-old, British-educated engineer who has held office in both the Iraqi federal and Kurdish regional governments – had 15 days to invite the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc to form a government. He chose to do so less than two hours after his election.

Since Saddam Hussein was toppled in a 2003 US-led invasion, power has been shared among Iraq’s three largest ethnic-sectarian components.

The most powerful post, that of prime minister, has traditionally been held by a Shia Arab, the speaker of parliament by a Sunni Arab and the presidency by a Kurd.

A former vice president, oil minister and finance minister, Abdul Mahdi now has 30 days to form a cabinet and present it to parliament for approval.

He faces the daunting tasks of rebuilding much of the country after four years of war with the armed group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also know as ISIS), healing its ethnic and sectarian tensions, and balancing foreign relations with Iraq’s two major allies – Iran and its arch-foe the US.

Abdul Mahdi, 76, is a trained economist who left Iraq in 1969 for exile in France, where he worked for think-tanks and edited magazines in French and Arabic. He is the son of a respected Shia cleric who was a minister in the era of Iraq’s monarchy, overthrown in 1958.

He will become the first elected prime minister not to hail from the Shia Dawa party.

Abdul Mahdi was nominated by two rival blocs, one led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and outgoing Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and the other by pro-Iranian political bloc leader Hadi al-Amiri and former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Shia conflict averted

Both blocs claim to hold a parliamentary majority but the dispute has been rendered irrelevant by their choice of the same man to be prime minister.

“The nomination of Mr Adel Abdul Mahdi came after an agreement between the Binaa bloc and the Islah bloc to nominate him via consensus and not a majority bloc in order to get past the issue of which is the majority bloc,” said Ahmed al-Asadi, a spokesman for the Binaa bloc led by al-Amiri and al-Maliki.

Ameri and Maliki are Iran’s two most prominent allies in Iraq. Abadi was seen as the preferred candidate of the US, while al-Sadr portrays himself as a nationalist who rejects both American and Iranian influence.

The rival claims to a parliamentary majority and uncertainty over the composition of the new government had raised tensions at a time when public impatience is growing over poor basic services, high unemployment and the slow pace of rebuilding after the war with ISIL.

Al-Sadr’s bloc welcomed Abdul Mahdi’s nomination. The cleric earlier on Tuesday tweeted that “Iraq is bigger than the biggest bloc,” a likely reference to the compromise.

Abadi issued a statement congratulating Abdul Mahdi and wishing him success.

“Abdul Mahdi’s nomination represents the best choice to pleasing all the Shia players who were about to reach a point of conflict and no return,” said Baghdad-based political analyst Ahmed Younis.

“All the Shia blocs reached the conclusion that their divisions could lead to an intra-Shia conflict which would weaken their position in Iraq,” he said. “Now with Abdul Mahdi there are no winners and losers, everyone is happy.”

A volcano erupted Wednesday on the same island in Indonesia where an earthquake and tsunami last week killed at least 1,400 people. 

The eruption of Mount Soputan on Sulawesi island in central Indonesia prompted authorities to warn of possible lava flows and ash clouds that could impact air travel. Evacuations were ordered for those living within a few miles of the volcano. 

The eruption spewed ash 19,700 feet into the sky.

Scientists have not yet determined whether the eruption was directly triggered by the earthquake in central Sulawesi on Friday. However, Indonesian news portal Tempo cited a government volcanologist who suspected it was. 

Indonesia has many actives volcanoes. It is also located in the so-called Ring of Fire, one of the most active areas for earthquakes in the world. 

President Donald Trump called Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday to offer assistance with both the emergency phase and reconstruction from the earthquake and tsunami that struck Sulawesi.

More: Indonesia tsunami: As desperation mounts, relief groups mobilize; here’s how you can help

More: No, the giant Katla volcano in Iceland isn’t about to erupt

In addition to the growing death toll, hundreds of people were severely injured in Friday’s disasters. With many roads blocked and key communication lines and infrastructure destroyed, food, water, fuel and medicine are struggling to reach the hardest-hit areas outside Palu, the largest city heavily damaged. More than 60,000 people have been displaced, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. 

 

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