Beyoncé Commissions Model With Muscular Dystrophy to Promote New Campaign

Jillian Mercado, a model with muscular dystrophy, has been chosen as one of the faces of Beyoncé’s new “Formation” merchandise line. The 28-year-old blogger announced the news on Wednesday with an Instagram photo featuring her wearing a sweatshirt and hat from the campaign while posing in her wheelchair. “OK LADIES now let’s get in FORMATION!,” she wrote. “So BEYond excited to finally announce that I’m on the official @beyonce website!!! A special shout out to Queen Bee herself and the amazing team behind it.”

Mercado, who was diagnosed with spastic muscular dystrophy when she was a child, grew up loving fashion. She got her big break in modeling when she was cast in a 2014 Diesel campaign and has since been signed with IMG models.

Here’s How to Play the Secret Game Hidden in Facebook

In February users figured out that there was secret chess game accessible in Facebook Messenger. Now a basketball game has popped up in the chat app.

To play, all you have to do is text a basketball emoji to a friend. A ball and a hoop will appear on your screen, and you swipe upward on the screen to try to score baskets. Eventually, the hoop will begin moving to increase the difficulty.

The game was likely built to celebrate March Madness. Facebook is getting increasingly interested in being a hub for sports conversation with initiatives like its Sports Stadium.

More than 150 killed in Angola yellow fever outbreak

There has also been an increase in malaria, cholera and chronic diarrhoea in Luanda and other cities [Joost de Raeymaeker/EPA]

A yellow fever epidemic has killed 158 people in Angola, with more than 50 deaths occurring last month alone, the World Health Organization officials have said.

A WHO representative in the capital, Luanda, said on Friday that the "possibility of spreading to other provinces" was much higher and deaths due to the viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes has been accelerating.

"The possibility of spreading out to other provinces or even to the all country is much higher than if it had happened in a rural area," Hernando Agudelo Ospina said.

"This is an urban pattern of outbreak of Yellow Fever and it is much more complicated to tackle and deal with."

Yellow Fever facts

It is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease  Transmitted by infected mosquitoes The "yellow" in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients Up to 50 percent of severely affected persons without treatment will die There are an estimated 84,000–170,000 cases and up to 60,000 deaths due to yellow fever per year The virus is endemic in tropical areas of Africa and Latin America, with a combined population of more than 900 million people The number of yellow fever cases has been decreasing over the past 10 years since the launch of Yellow Fever Initiative in 2006 There is no specific treatment for the disease Vaccination is the most important preventive measure against yellow fever Source: WHO

Angola lies in the yellow fever belt of Africa where 90 percent of about 60,000 annual global deaths occur due to the disease, according to WHO data. An estimated 84,000-170,000 severe cases of yellow fever occur in Africa.

There is no specific treatment for the viral haemorrhagic disease which is transmitted by infected mosquitoes and found in tropical regions of Africa and Latin America's Amazon region. Vaccination is the best preventive measure against the disease.

Poor sanitation has been the main cause of the outbreak as it provides a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Piles of waste 

City authorities have slashed their budget for rubbish collection to cope with a budget crisis, leaving piles of waste building up in poorer suburbs including Viana, where the first case of yellow fever was reported in late December.

Yellow fever symptoms include severe headache, nausea, vomiting and fatigue, according to WHO.

The disease can enter a toxic phase in some people, leading to organ failure and death.

Angola relies on crude exports for around 95 percent of its foreign exchange earnings and a sharp decline in oil prices since mid-2014 has hobbled Africa's second biggest oil exporter, sending the kwanza currency plummeting, and necessitated deep cuts in public spending.

There has also been an increase in malaria, cholera and chronic diarrhoea in Luanda and other cities, partly due to a breakdown in sanitation services and rubbish collection, health officials say.

Paris Attacks 'Most Wanted' Wounded - Reports

A key suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, has been shot and wounded during a raid in a Brussels suburb, say reports.

The 'most wanted man in Europe' was injured during a shootout, in which 10 shots were heard.

Nun Caught On Camera Stealing From Store

A Pennsylvania nun has been arrested after she was allegedly recorded on surveillance video stealing food and toiletries from a store.

State police said Sister Agnes Pennino was seen taking $23 worth of items from the Surplus Outlet near Berwick on Monday.

As she wandered around the store, the nun can be seen removing red plastic bags from her purse before allegedly bagging up items she had in her trolley and then exiting the store without paying.

Zane Kishbach, manager at the store, told WNEP: "I was shocked, to say the least. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it that a nun would actually do something like that."

Sister Pennino walks out of the store without paying. Pic: Surplus Outlet

Investigators have said they believe Pennino intended to steal the items from the store.

She waited for someone to enter through the front door, which caused the automatic front door to open, before leaving with the items still in her trolley.

The 78-year-old is a nun at Saints Cyril and Methodius Convent in Danville, around 20 miles away from the store.

State police traced the number plate of the car she was driving to the convent.

The theft is classed as a summary offence. If Pennino pleads guilty, she would only have to pay a fine.

The convent has declined to comment.

Brussels raid: Paris suspect Abdeslam's DNA found in raided flat

DNA and fingerprints of Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam have been found in a Brussels flat raided this week, Belgian prosecutors are quoted as saying.

State broadcaster RTBF says Abdeslam may have escaped Tuesday's police raid, in which one suspect was shot dead.

The raid was linked to last year's Paris attacks in which 130 people died.

Abdeslam, a French national born in Brussels, has been the subject of a massive manhunt since the attacks.

Refugee crisis: EU leaders pitch plan to Turkey

Amnesty International planted a large screen in the middle of Brussels' European quarter proclaiming 'Don't trade refugees' [Reuters]

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said he is hopeful of a deal as he arrived in Brussels to hear a proposal by EU leaders aimed at stopping the influx of refugees into Europe.

Leaders of the 28-member bloc agreed on Thursday on a common plan under which Turkey would be given financial and political concessions in return for taking back all refugees who reached Greek islands off its coast.

Speaking from Brussels, Davutoglu said the refugee emergency was not something to be bargained over as he attended an early meeting with senior EU officials before a summit with the EU's heads of state and government.

"We are working here in Brussels for humanitarian issues. For us, for Turkey, the humanitarian issue is not a bargaining issue, but an issue of value," Davutoglu told reporters.

"Of course the EU and Turkey have the same goal, the same objective, to help Syrian refugees especially," he added. "This is our purpose. I am sure, I hope we will be achieving our goal."

But it remains uncertain if Friday's summit can clinch a deal.

"Negotiations with Turkey won't be very easy," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who devised the outlines of the plan with Davutoglu, after EU leaders agreed a common stance on Thursday.

A senior Turkish official told the Reuters news agency that Davutoglu would press the EU to open up new areas of negotiation on its long-stalled bid to join the bloc, despite a veto threat by Cyprus.

"We're on the right track but we're not there yet," French President Francois Hollande told reporters after the first day of talks in Brussels. "I can't guarantee you a happy ending."

Even if they can overcome possible Turkish objections, Thursday's EU discussions revealed considerable doubts among the Europeans themselves over whether a deal could be made either legal in international law, or workable.

Over dinner, leaders gave EU negotiators a mandate to conclude an accord with Turkey by which it would take back all refugees who reached Greek islands off its coast. In return, the EU would take in Syrian refugees direct from Turkey, increase aid for Syrians there, speed up Ankara's EU membership process and a scheme to let Turks visit Europe without visas.

Much of the debate, Merkel said, focused on ensuring that a plan that has outraged human rights agencies could ensure that those returned to Turkey, a country with a patchy and worsening record on the matter, would have rights to asylum protected.

"An agreement with Turkey cannot be a blank cheque," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel warned, echoing many colleagues who face complaints that Europe is selling out to anti-refugees nationalists at home by outsourcing its problems to the Turks.

'Stop the deal'

Outside the summit, rights group Amnesty International had planted a large screen in the middle of Brussels' European quarter proclaiming "Don't trade refugees. Stop the deal".

Summit chairman Donald Tusk will open negotiations with Davutoglu at 8:30am (07:30 GMT) to prepare for a lunch meeting at which all 28 EU national leaders aim to wrap up a deal with the Turkish prime minister.

A major problem is Turkey's four-decade-old dispute with EU member Cyprus, whose President Nicos Anastasiades insisted there could be no opening of new "chapters" in Turkey's EU membership talks until Ankara allows Cypriot traffic to its sea and airports - a result of a refusal to recognise the Cypriot state.

After EU leaders told Tusk where they could give ground and where they had "red lines", Anastasiades said he was ready to veto a deal if necessary.

There is anger in Nicosia at Merkel for appearing to make Davutoglu an offer last week without having consulted Cyprus at a time when talks on reunification with the Turkish-backed north of the island are at a delicately hopeful stage.

Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, made it clear that Cypriot interests must be respected.

But Turkey is impatient with what it has called Cypriot "caprice" and a Turkish official in Brussels with Davutoglu said: "The EU has to see the big picture ... We think there are many steps to be taken for the opening of those (accession) chapters. And that is still our expectation."

Within a year, more than a million people have arrived in Europe fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.