(CNN)A gloved hand reaches for a scantily-clad backside. It could be an image from the hit television series "Mad Men," which documented the ribald world of advertising in 1960s America. Except this is 2015 and "Who squeezes them in Harelbeke?" is the poster strapline for the elite E3 Harelbeke competition in Belgium, accompanied by that gloved cyclist's hand poised to pinch a woman's bottom. Unlike the wind provocatively lifting up her skirt, the controversial advertisement wasn't dreamed up out of thin air. It's inspired by previous winner Slovak Peter Sagan, who pinched a podium girl's behind at the 2013 Tour de Flanders -- something he later apologized for, saying "I promise to act more respectfully in the future." A week earlier, he was also pictured on the E3 Harelbeke podium, making an ass-grabbing motion towards another flower girl. E3 Harelbeke's organizers chose to celebrate his antics in their 2015 campaign, sparking a global debate about sexism in cycling that has raced far beyond the billboard. "Old Boy's Club" "A guy grabbing a woman's ass is very much indicative of a level of sexual assault," said Kathryn Bertine, former professional cyclist and director of "Half the Road," a documentary about female racers. "This poster makes cycling look very outdated. They're relying on a 'good old boys club' tactic to help them sell a product -- and in this case that product is racing." Judging by E3 Harelebeke's provocative standards, the poster could even appear tame compared to previous years. In 2011 organizers opted for a naked woman lying in a field, while the silhouettes of miniature riders traversed her bare backside. More baffling was last year's poster featuring a woman straddling three other females curled into the shape of a bike. "Such provocative imagery may have been seen by some in the 1950s and 1960s as a basis for selling products, but marketing communications are a rather more sophisticated and progressive activity than they were 50 years ago," said Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing at Coventry University. "I think E3 Harelbeke are rather out of kilter with the way that most people think today." "A playful nod" Cycling's world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has since requested the poster be removed, to which the E3 Harelbeke organisers have agreed -- not that they necessarily see it as offensive themselves. "Personally, no I don't think it's sexist," Marc Claerhout, E3 Harelebeke manager, told CNN. Could he see why others might find it offensive? "I don't know. You have a lot of publicity where you see more than some underwear," he said. "And we didn't mean it as sexist." The organization has since withdrawn the poster, releasing an official apology to "anyone who might find it intimidating, discriminatory or sexist." "The organization launched this campaign as a playful nod to the stage incident two years ago in which a rider got ready to squeeze the buttocks of a flower girl," it added. Removing the poster is one thing -- but the UCI missed an opportunity to make an example of a tournament which has used seemingly sexist campaigns for years, said Olympic road race champion, Nicole Cooke. "Telling the race organizers to remove the posters is not much of a deterrent," added the retired cyclist whose autobiography "The Breakaway" highlighted sexism within the sport during her over decade long career. "A whopping fine and canceling the race would have sent out the strong message that there is no place for sexism in cycling. Instead, the race has received huge publicity." Celebrating sexual assault? The poster also glorifies what would be seen as sexual assault in any other workplace, said Laura Bates, founder of the "Everyday Sexism Project." "It contains a direct reference to an incident of sexual assault, which shouldn't be treated as something to celebrate and joke about," she added. Similarly, Belgium's Institute for the Equality between Men and Women, said the image violated 2007 anti-discrimination legislation and "incited sexual intimidation." It's unlikely the same image would have been used in a female tournament. "Not only is the poster sexist -- this race doesn't even have a women's field," said Bertine, who has long campaigned for a women's edition of the Tour de France equal to the men's -- a race often seen as the ultimate prize in cycling. "Here we are, fighting these battles to make equality happen. And posters like this are not helping to pave the way for cycling," she said. She sees the problem not with the majority of "supportive" male cyclists, but with the lack of female representation among race directors and promoters. Money talks . Indeed, sponsorship is a big factor is getting a race like the Women's Tour de France off the ground, said Alex Russell, one of two females on the board of British Cycling. "A lot of it comes down to whether something has a market value -- and it's not necessarily down to gender," she said. "We've introduced a women's tour in Britain and we have got financial support for that. But you can't just jump to mass spectators and mass broadcasting because these things grow incrementally." Former World Road Race champion Cooke points to the discrepancy in prize money as another big obstacle for women within the sport. "The inspiration for the poster is the 2013 Tour de Flanders, for which male winner Fabian Cancellara received €20,000 ($22,000) for his efforts. In comparison, when I won this event, I was happy for the team to split the modest €1,000 I received amongst the other riders," she said. "The biggest change I would recommend to provide protection, security and credibility for female road riders, would be the introduction of a minimum wage, as there is in place for male riders," added Cooke. "Cycling cannot be allowed to exist outside the laws of society, like some sort of medieval anarchy." It seems that rather than a podium girl's bottom, the one being put under the spotlight at this year's event, will be the organizers themselves.

Belgium cycling tournament scraps poster of podium girl's bum . Sparks global debate about sexism in cycling .

2020. The video is of a scene from a documentary by the French-Lebanese director Mai Masri, who, according to the Independent, said it highlights the "pervasive presence of sexual violence in advertising."
The video shows a fashion shoot of a young model and actor called Noureddine, playing with a ball while in a bathing suit.
"His hand brushes the buttock and that's not a big thing," said Masri, who said she wanted to draw attention to the prevalence of sexual objectification of women in the industry.
It's clear from the clip that she was not alone. At around 50 seconds into the clip, a second gloved hand reaches down and grabs Noureddine's bottom.
In a second video uploaded to the director's Instagram account, Noureddine says: "As an actor, you are there to represent a character, so I can have a ball, a gun, but I can't be an object that people have the right to touch, you know?"
Noureddine's comments were posted at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has forced the modeling industry and the rest of the fashion world to largely shut down.
And Masri's video has, in turn, prompted responses from the fashion world.
Fashion photographer and video editor Tim Tadder, whose work has been published in GQ, the New York Times, and the Sunday Times, said on Instagram that Noureddine would have looked a "little stupid" if he had tried to stop the hand reaching out for his "hindquarter."
"This is how we're treated in the world of advertising. But I'd like to know how we are treated in the real world of advertising, in places like Morocco and the Gulf," he said.
The video from Masri's short film, titled "Noureddine," was uploaded on June 11. So far it has been viewed nearly 1 million times on the director's Instagram.
CNN has contacted Masri, Tadder and the New York-based Model Alliance, whose mission is to protect the welfare of models, for comment.
In a tweet, Model Alliance Executive Director Jamie Lee Curtis applauded the documentary.
Masri has made a short film before, "Ghassan," which told the story of a young man who was jailed and tortured in a secret prison in Lebanon. It premiered


A snake catcher has shared hilarious images of some of the most bizarre places he has discovered the world's deadliest creatures. For 13 years Richie Gilbert has been removing serpents from unexpected spots such as gyms, wine racks, brothels and even under pillows. Fearless Mr Gilbert has relocated around 600 snakes across Queensland, Australia, since founding his company Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, which operates 24 hours and seven days a week, in February 2014. Scroll down for video . Snake catcher Richie Gilbert has relocated around 600 snakes across Queensland, Australia, since founding his company Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 . The brave father-of -two has shared some of the hilarious places he's removed snakes from: A red-bellied black snake made itself at home in a child's shoe (left) and an eastern brown snake waits in a bird feeder patiently for lunch (right) A carpet python guards the toilet paper: Mr Gilbert has been bitten more than 100 bites in his lifetime . He has been bitten more than a dozen times this past season alone - with more than 100 bites in his lifetime. But despite his daring job, Mr Gilbert anticipates turning it into a family business with his five-year-old daughter, Ivory, showing an interest. 'My family have a healthy respect for venomous snakes and while they wouldn't touch them, they certainly do not fear them,' he said. 'My two eldest girls, Zahra and Ivory, absolutely love hearing about my day and will hold non-venomous snakes any chance they get.' A red-bellied black snake curled up under a pillow: Mr Gilbert anticipates turning it into a family business . A 1.5m python loose in Richies car (left) and a 2.7m long coastal carpet python lifting some weights (right) A 1.6m carpet python made itself at home near a toilet: Mr Gilbert caught his first snake at five years old . Mr Gilbert deals with creatures varying from carpet snakes to highly venomous Eastern Brown Snakes, the second-most venomous in the world. He added: 'My mum says I was chasing lizards as soon as I could walk. 'She tells people I caught my first snake, a highly-venomous copperhead, when I was five. 'We were camping in New South Wales and a friend and I came out of the bush with it in a bucket. A snake cuddled up on a wine rack: 'Most people think a snake will chase you and bite but that couldn't be further from the truth,' Mr Gilbert said . A large python helps out in the office (left) and a carpet python pictured coming through a door after chasing a cat (right) Knock, knock: A carpet python waits outside a door . 'Most people think a snake will chase you and bite but that couldn't be further from the truth. 'They also think they are slimy but they really just feel like finger nails.' But that close encounter with disaster didn't deter the boy from the Sunshine Coast from turning his backyard hobby  into a career as a qualified snake catcher. 'A lot of people think it's a dangerous job but to me, I feel like it's not dangerous at all,' Mr Gilbert told Daily Mail Australia. Mr Gilbert was called to a home this season where he found the large carpet python had devoured chickens . 'There are people risking their lives everyday - like electricians or people parachuting and jumping out of planes - to me that's dangerous but its all relative to risk management. 'But I've been doing it for a long time and I can't put my finger on what attracted me to them but I have always loved chasing snakes since I was little. 'And I love snakes for different reasons - like the venomous ones give me an adrenaline kick when I catch them.' Mr Gilbert, who owns the Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, has been catching snakes since the age of five . Gilbert's colleague Stuart McKenzie recently removed an eastern brown snake on a job. Mr Gilbert added: 'It's the most beautiful one I've ever seen - it's orange incase you didn't notice!' 'It's been quite busy during the summer season and I've been getting a lot of phone calls and text messages for identification or to attend homes to locate and remove snakes if necessary', he said. Despite many years of experience, Mr Gilbert said he has never had any training. 'A lot of people ask me how I've learnt to catch snakes but I can't remember a day where I'm not catching them – I've been doing it for a long time and I guess it was just self-taught. 'Growing up, Steve Irwin played a passion that I had. I remember watching his shows and thinking 'that's what I do too!' and it stirred me on from there.' He was called to this home in the Sunshine Coast to save a pet cat from this python which was waiting to pounce . Mr Gilbert has been quite busy during the summer season, with number phone calls and texts daily . Snake catcher Richie Gilbert came to the rescue when he was called to a home on the Sunshine Coast . While Mr Gilbert makes his job sound too easy, he said he has had some of the scariest moments. 'Just recently, I did something really stupid – I crawled underneath a home and it was just two foot off the ground to catch an eastern brown snake. 'Crawling on my tummy, trying to locate it which in hind sight – I shouldn't have done – but when I looked up, it was right above my head, looking at me like 'what are you doing?' so I slowly backed out. 'The owner passed me a pool stick to try and get it out and it dropped to the ground just two metres from my face and looked straight at me in a defence position – it's what they do when they feel threatened and vulnerable. Despite many years of experience, Mr Gilbert said he has never had any training and was self-taught . The family Labrador alerted the owners when it found a carpet python in its kennel. The owners taped up the door to trap it inside the kennel until Mr Gilbert arrived to remove it . 'It was stupid and dumb – I managed to catch it safely but it wasn't the end of it. The owner's Labrador was coming at me so I had the snake in one hand and trying to scare the dog with my leg – it was crazy.' After Mr Gilbert catches the reptiles, he releases them back into the wild. 'We try to release them in the same geographical area and I don't like to take them too far away from where they were found. But it has to be a far distance away so they don't come back,' he said. 'But if it's a venomous snake, a lot more thought goes into them and we try to release them far away as possible from residential areas.' When it doubt about spotting a snake, Mr Gilbert suggests the best thing to do in a situation is move away slowly and try to take a photograph from a safe distance . The avid snake catcher has been catching snakes at a very young age and hasn't stopped since . Mr Gilbert said the most venomous snakes Australians should be aware of at the moment is the eastern brown snakes, which are the second most venomous snakes in the world. When it doubt about spotting a snake, Gilbert suggests the best thing to do in a situation is move away slowly and try to take a photograph from a safe distance. 'Send it to us and we can identify it for you and if it's venomous or not and whether we need to come out to catch it ourselves and relocate them,' he said. 'If the snake is found inside a home in one of the rooms, it's best to close the room and pop a towel underneath the door and then call us. 'Be smart about it because 90 percent of the time, people who are bitten are often trying to kill it or scare it away. 'All snakes want to do is get away but if it doesn't feel it can escape, it'll strike – so be sensible when you spot them.' For more information, please visit Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7. Snakes are a common component of backyard fauna. But these key points will help you take precautions around the home to reduce the likelihood of a negative encounter. Source: Snake Catcher Brisbane .

Snake catcher Richie Gilbert has been catching snakes since the age of 5 . He has relocated around 600 snakes and been bitten over 100 times . After removing them from homes, Gilbert releases them back into the wild . The avid snake catcher said he never had training and was self-taught . Gilbert runs his own business called Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 .

 and even a toilet seat.
He shared the snaps on Facebook where the posts had been liked more than 4,000 times in just hours. The images show the critters in places such as under beds, stuck in the toilet or even up a tree. Mr Gilbert is an expert reptile catcher and trainer and he travels around the country with his rescue organisation called Reptile Rescue Queensland.
The 39-year-old, who lives in Cairns on Queensland's north, said it's a job that's both fulfilling and terrifying but he's not sure why people were so surprised he's found creatures in such surprising places.
Read More: The snake catcher that puts even 007 to shame
He said: "The most common places for snakes in Queensland is in the garden under a bed.
"People think that a snake will just be in the garden, but they will be under things like a bed or a BBQ." He also added some snakes are very inquisitive and just won't go away even if people move the couch, bed or BBQ.
The Facebook user wrote: "Snake wrangling. So this happened today. One of my clients was cleaning out a fridge in a gym.
"After 8-9 months of nothing she found a 2m scrub python with a very good attitude. She had been keeping him hidden under the fridge the whole time!
"So we went back the next day with a snake handler to help locate and catch.
"I think it's funny how many people assume that snakes are going to hide in the back of toilets, the shower, under a couch.
"But you also have to remember that a lot of people are doing house clean outs and they're pulling cupboards and fridges out and moving things. That's why you always hear about the snakes in the toilet!"
Mr Gilbert also said he's had some terrifying moments when he's had to catch snakes from very high locations such as a tree, or even from a gymnasium roof. He added that it's not just snakes that come to his rescue, he also finds other creatures like pythons, cobras, boas, carpet pythons, keelbacks and even a green tree python stuck in a wall unit. He's even been confronted by cobras and pythons in the past.
Read More: RAAF plane lands near snake wrangler trying to free stuck python


He's one of the forgotten members of the Bali Nine drug smuggling gang but now Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen has spoken  for the first time about his life in prison, his torment at facing the prospect of dying behind bars and his terror over the impending executions of fellow traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. The 31-year-old was convicted in 2005 for his involvement in a plot to smuggle 8kg of heroin out of Bali and into Australia. He was jailed for life - later upgraded to a death sentence before being reduced back to life, meaning he will spend the rest of his days as an inmate. Scroll down for video . Bali Nine drug smuggler Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen has spoken for the first time about his life in prison . And he has of course been watching the fate of the condemned Bali Nine ringleaders very closely as he prepares to launch another appeal, knowing full well he risks having the death sentence reimposed by a panel of judges. 'Sitting in my jail cell and watching the way the Indonesian government’s handling their execution, I’m terrified,' Nguyen told The Saturday Telegraph, referring to Chan and Sukumaran. 'I’m terrified for their situation, distraught for their loved ones and agonisingly certain I will be next.' He also has to deal with the guilt of putting his family through such an emotional ordeal - and the fact they have spent all their savings paying his legal costs. The 31-year-old has been through a legal rollercoaster since being sentenced in 2005, as the Indonesian Supreme Court increased his sentence to the death penalty in 2006 and then reduced it back to life in prison in 2008. The hardline stance of Indonesian President Joko Widodo has frightened Nguyen to the point where he believes he would not receive a fair trial should he appeal, but is still determined to not give up hope. The 31-year-old was convicted in 2005 for his involvement in a plot to smuggle 8kg of heroin out of Bali . The Indonesian Supreme Court increased Nguyen's sentence to the death penalty in 2006 . The Bali Nine consists of nine Australians who were arrested in Indonesia in 2005 for a plot to smuggle 8kg of heroin out of the country and into Australia . Despite international pressure and official protests from the governments of Brazil, Holland, France, the Philippines and Nigeria, Mr Joko has remained unwavering on the executions. 'No one prefers death. Death is an easy way out. I deserve the suffering I’m going through. But an appeal means hope. Without that hope there isn’t any future,' Nguyen said. His sentiment has been echoed by supporters of Chan and Sukumaran as they wait for the outcome of their last-ditch appeal. The appeals were adjourned until next week, and Australian authorities have continued to negotiate with the Indonesian government for clemency and life imprisonment for the pair. High profile Indonesian authorities have reportedly urged President Joko to reconsider the executions, amid concerns that if the executions go ahead the nation's reputation will be tarnished. 'Cracks are showing. They know that after these executions, there are many more to come,' one source, who asked to remain anonymous, told Fairfax. Nguyen said that the hope of future appeals is what pushes him through each day, though he understands the gravity of his actions. The 31-year-old has been through a legal rollercoaster since being sentenced in 2005 (here with fellow Bali Nine members) 'I’m terrified for their situation, distraught for their loved ones and agonisingly certain I will be next,' Nguyen said of Chan and Sukumaran . Nguyen has  been watching the fate of the condemned Bali Nine ringleaders very closely as he prepares to launch another appeal . H said one of his biggest regrets is the shame he has brought to his family and the heartbreak his situation has put them through. Nguyen has been trying to repair his relationship with them since being convicted almost 10 years ago, and said he is haunted by the memory of his mother coming to visit him for the first time in prison. His parents were given asylum in Australia after fleeing Vietnam and taking refuge in the Philippines, where Nguyen was born. Describing his parents as hardworking and courageous, Nguyen said that he threw away what they fought so hard for and that he will never be able to make it up to them. His parents, who now run a bakery in Brisbane, have also used their life savings to fund his appeals, going into debt in a desperate bid to reduce his sentence. He has launched a fundraising page to ease the financial stress from his parents' shoulders, which he is hoping to put towards his next appeal. Nguyen is currently being held in a jail in Malang, where he shares a cell with fellow Bali Nine drug mule Martin Stephens (above) Nguyen has been in close contact with his friend Scott Rush (above), whom he enlisted as part of the plot . Rush was found with 1.3 kilograms of heroin strapped to his body when he was just 19 . Nguyen is currently being held in a jail in Malang, where he shares a cell with fellow Bali Nine drug mule Martin Stephens, and has been in close contact with his friend Scott Rush, whom he enlisted as part of the smuggling plot. Rush was found with 1.3 kilograms of heroin strapped to his body when he was just 19, and has struggled with drugs since his conviction. Nguyen said that it has been terrible to see his friend 'destroy himself'. The 31-year-old is preparing to launch his fifth appeal as Chan and Sukumaran wait for the outcome of their latest appeal, and said that he hopes desperately their lives don't end by execution.

Bali Nine drug smuggler Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen was convicted in 2005 . He has spent ten years behind bars for his role in the drug smuggling plot . Nguyen was jailed for life but is terrified of being given a death sentence after watching the fate of Chan and Sukumaran . He said he regrets his actions and the position it has put his family in . His parents have gone into debt to fund his appeals but refuses to give up hope and is preparing to launch a fifth appeal this year .

 fact that his wife could have been killed.
Speaking through his interpreter, Mr Tan, 38, tells the BBC: "You can say I'm lucky," Mr Tan says in his second interview since his release in February.
"My life here has been much better. I haven't missed the sunshine but I do miss the rain."
He describes the despair he felt and how he struggled at the prospect of death.
Mr Tan says he was devastated when he learnt that his wife Mai Ly had left Vietnam and married another man.
"What is the situation for her now?" he asks. "I haven't heard any news from her. That is really a big question. I am hoping one day she will come back."
Mr Tan had worked at the same hotel in Darwin as his wife and had helped her to get a visa to Australia when she arrived in the Northern Territory in 2007.
But when he was arrested for drug smuggling in 2015, her life was turned upside down.
"I felt her suffering when she had to go through that time," Mr Tan says.
"When I was sent back to prison again and I was under that big rock, there was a big rock above her in Vietnam, she couldn't stand that."
His wife went to Vietnam in search of a new life.
She remarried a friend of her ex-husband, a man she'd known since she was a child.
"I am sure she is happy and I am not worried about her."
After several years of legal wrangling, Mr Tan was granted compassionate leave to travel to Vietnam to reunite with his children after the Australian government received reports of poor health.
His release has left him feeling bewildered.
"It's not really easy for me to understand why the Australian government is willing to do this," he says.
"I'm not able to talk to the Australian government to ask why they did that."
Mr Tan is trying to forget the 19 years he spent in an Australian prison, a place where the 38-year-old now feels he has been forgotten.
He says his greatest fear now is that he'll be left to die alone in a foreign country.
"If it takes a long time before the Vietnamese government wants to get me back and if they don't want to get me back and they have no pity on me and leave me alone, I will be worried about that,"


It is the game which, ultimately, could define the success or otherwise of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane’s expensive Republic of Ireland tenure. Installed amid much fanfare 18 months ago, £1million-per-year O’Neill and his assistant Keane, with a £600,000 salary, were given a remit of qualification for Euro 2016, a task made easier by the expansion to a 24-team format. Defeat against Poland at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday evening, however, would all but end hope of automatic progression to the finals in France, leaving Ireland to do battle with Scotland for the play-off berth. The mood here is not optimistic. Martin O'Neill, manager of the Republic of Ireland, needs to prove his worth with victory over Poland . O'Neill and Roy Keane (left) were given big salaries and asked to reach the 2016 European Championships . An inquest, you feel, awaits O’Neill and his regime should they fail to beat the group leaders. One newspaper described their manager as ‘bookish and vaguely befuddled’, and noted the ‘carnage’ which follows Keane. There has been a definite effort to play down the chaos around Keane this week and the No 2 gave an untypically subdued and low-key performance in front of the press. O’Neill ignored the opinion pieces which have called into question his impact since he arrived and kept all talk to football. He said: ‘The importance of the occasion should not be missed. Defeat would be a big dent in our hopes of automatic qualification. It might not decide everything, but it is very significant. We have to try to win. If the Republic of Ireland fail to beat Poland, their hopes of automatic qualification will be all but over . O'Neill and Keane take a training session at Gannon Park as the team prepare for Sunday's big match . ‘I’ve said all along that the home games will shape our destiny. This is the first of that group. We have to make them count. ‘We can change all of that (negative talk) with one result and one fantastic performance. We will not get very far with a pessimistic approach and I’m not overly concerned with what people say before the game. ‘We have given ourselves a chance (of qualification) but we will have to be right on top of our game to win this match.’ One criticism of O’Neill is that he does not know his preferred XI or, indeed, formation. He said this week that players could win a starting place should they impress at their coastal training base in Malahide. Keane hands out instructions to the Republic of Ireland players during a training session . Sunday's game takes place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin; the Republic of Ireland's home ground . One player not guaranteed to start is captain Robbie Keane. He was dropped for the morale-shattering 1-0 defeat in Scotland in November. The LA Galaxy striker, 34, said: ‘That’s up to the manager (if I play). ‘I’ll be ready whether that’s from the bench or starting. I’m the captain, I have to set an example. ‘But I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could make a difference. I still want to be the best. I have that hunger.’ Keane, sensing the air of negativity, added: ‘It’s up to us to make this a turning point. Victory would give this squad and country a huge confidence boost.’ Lose and it could prove an awfully long three months for O’Neill before they host Scotland. Win, and that £1m salary would look like a shrewd investment.

Republic of Ireland face Poland at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday . Failure to win would all but end their hopes of automatic qualification . 18 months ago, Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane were given £1million and £600,000-a-year salaries, and asked to qualify for Euro 2016 . The pair need to prove their worth when they take to the pitch on Sunday .

’Neill has promised to improve the nation’s status.
That mission starts with the arrival of an unheralded and much less expensive England team to Dublin on Tuesday. The World Cup finalists – who are managed by Roy Hodgson – should be a strong bet to win Group C and qualify for the European Championship finals.
A 2-0 defeat at Wembley in March was followed up by a 3-1 reversal against Ukraine in Lille and, as a result, Ireland face a daunting task to reach the finals.
With the French and Germans to come, Group C is without a doubt one of the most formidable the nation has faced. And the former Celtic player has yet to beat one of his former clubs.
“We’re very aware of the enormity of the task we have and we know what we’re up against,” said Keane, who was at Rangers for three seasons under Mark Wotte and Graeme Souness before spells at Leicester and Sunderland.
“I think Roy’s done a tremendous job. We have a young squad of players and with the young players there is a different thought process to the way it works.
“You are trying to get a team together to do something, whereas Roy is trying to get his team playing the way he wants. We’re learning, we’re improving on a game by game basis and hopefully we’ll get there. I can’t promise that we’re going to win games but I do believe that we’re getting better and getting closer.”
The Republic will have enough motivation to win the first game in Dublin in the centenary year of the Football Association of Ireland.
O’Neill was involved in Northern Ireland’s defeat in the 1986 World Cup when Ireland hosted the tournament and his appointment was greeted with great hopes. Keane, meanwhile, is a local man from Limerick and has a similar appetite to be successful. The pair are yet to win a game in a competitive match since their appointment.
The team which started against Uruguay four years ago was, largely, the same as the 3-0 drubbing administered by Germany in a qualifier in Vienna last week.
It includes the 35-year-old Robbie Keane, who is the nation’s top scorer, the versatile Glenn Whelan, Aiden McGeady, Damien Duff, Ciaran Clark, Kevin Doyle and Jonathan Walters, who was top goalscorer at Euro 2012


(CNN)In fairy tales, it's usually the princess that needs protecting. At Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley, the princess is the one defending the castle. Meet Parisa Tabriz, the 31-year-old with perhaps the most enchanted job title in engineering -- "Google Security Princess." Her job is to hack into the most popular web browser on the planet, trying to find flaws in the system before the "black hats" do. Indeed, much like the good and bad witches of the Wizard of Oz, hackers are described as having "white" or "black" hats. To defeat Google's attackers, Tabriz must firstly think like them. In this cyberspace battle, the data of around a billion Chrome users hangs in the balance -- and Tabriz wasn't going to settle for any old moniker. "When I started, my official job title was 'Information Security Engineer,' which I thought was a bit boring and not really meaningful," said the Iranian-Polish-American, speaking a million miles an hour over the phone from Google HQ. "So I changed it to 'Security Princess' as more of a tongue-in-cheek thing. I've never been exceptionally girly or fit the stereotype of a princess, so it was a bit ironic for me to go by that name -- and then it stuck!" Tabriz's role has evolved dramatically in the eight years since she first started working at Google. Back then, the young graduate from Illinois University was one of 50 security engineers -- today there are over 500. "Our users include presidents of foreign countries -- I hope Obama uses Chrome too. It includes really highly-targeted individuals, political dissidents, journalists, and people who just want to casually use the internet," she said. "Google depends on those users trusting us with their data. So if we can't protect it, we have no business." Cybercrime has come a long way in the past decade -- from the cliched Nigerian Prince Scam to credit card theft, and suspected government surveillance over emails. Tabriz's biggest concern now is the people who find bugs in Google's software, and sell the information to governments or criminals. To combat this, the company has set up a Vulnerability Rewards Program, paying anywhere from $100 to $20,000 for reported glitches. "What we've seen in the last couple of years is what we suspect to be governments trying to intercept communications," said Tabriz. "In one case, there were Iranian-region Gmail users whose connection was being intercepted." "These incidents are especially scary since they seem to be carried out by large, well-funded organizations or governments," she added. It's a world away from Tabriz's computer-free childhhod home in Chicago. The daughter of an Iranian-American doctor father, and Polish-American nurse mother, Tabriz had little contact with computers until she started studying engineering at college. Gaze across a line-up of Google security staff today and you'll find women like Tabriz are few and far between -- though in the last few years she has hired more female tech whizzes. She admits there's an obvious gender imbalance in Silicon Valley, but for once is stumped on the fault. "Clearly the numbers make you think 'what is the problem that there aren't more women working in security, that there aren't more women working in technology?" she said. "And it does make me think what is the problem here? Is it the culture or the atmosphere?" Funnily enough, during training sessions Tabriz first asks new recruits to hack not a computer, but a vending machine. "There's this idea that you need to be a super genius computer geek to be a hacker. But in reality, I think anybody can be a hacker in the real world -- just think of all the non-software examples," said Tabriz. "A lot of people ask me what's the best answer I've been given to the vending machine problem, and the real answer is there is none. Some people think about how they'd steal their favorite snack; some people figure out how to steal the entire machine of snacks; and some people figure out how they could add some sort of functionality to the machine that wasn't there before" Tabriz's job is as much about technological know-how, as understanding the psychology of attackers. "Anybody who's working in defense -- police officers, security, or law enforcement -- has to stop and think 'what is the enemy or the attacker going to do?'" she said. "Because you always want to stay one step ahead of them." Read more from Make, Create, Innovate: . The world's largest machine gets ready to restart . You will you soon be able to 'swallow the doctor' The end of electronics as we know it?

Parisa Tabriz is the 31-year-old computer whizz paid to hack into Google . The self-styled 'Security Princess' finds bugs in the software before attackers .

 the most critical job in the $50 billion technology company.
Tabriz is director of security for Google's Chrome Web browser and is charged with protecting the world's biggest Internet company.
"Most people use Google services every day, whether they're watching a video, typing into Gmail, or looking for the nearest grocery store or local coffee shop," she wrote in a blog post when she began the job in 2010.
"Our mission is to help them get the most out of their day, and keeping the security of our users is the key to making that possible," she wrote. "Our success is based on the trust of our users, and maintaining that trust is at the forefront of everything we do."
The princess is ready to fight
The daughter of Iranian exiles, Tabriz grew up outside Washington, D.C. She became an engineer while still in high school and won Intel's 2000 Girls in Science award.
"I'm proud of being an engineer, but I'm not a very typical engineer," Tabriz told CNN last week. "I'm not interested in making a bunch of money. I'm interested in helping people."
She earned her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a master's degree in computer science from the University of California at San Diego. She recently received an MBA from Stanford University.
Tabriz came to work at Google in 2008 as a member of its security team working with Android, the operating system for the smartphone market and a key weapon in Google's battle with rival Apple. She also did some consulting for Google on issues such as securing its network.
After leaving in 2010, she joined Dropbox as a security engineer, but moved on soon after when the file-sharing company was hit with a hack. She said she needed a job in California, and a job where she could continue her education by studying for certifications -- so she took a position at Google.
"I started working for a bunch of smart people and realized I have a lot more to learn," she said.
"Security is hard," she added. "It's always a moving target. People are always trying to bypass security, and every time we find a way to fix something, there are new ways to get around it."
"I never realized until I got into it that it's such a broad field and such an interesting area, and the


A pet goldfish is recovering from an operation to remove a cancerous eye after its owner paid hundreds of pounds for the procedure. Star the goldfish underwent the fiddly operation at Inglis Veterinary Hospital in Dunfermline, Fife, to remove one eye, which was cancerous and had left the fish blind. The procedure was paid for by the Gordon family, who also shelled out for an operation to remove a lump from their other pet goldfish, Nemo. Scroll down for video . Star the goldfish underwent the fiddly operation at Inglis Veterinary Hospital in Dunfermline, Fife, to remove one eye, which was cancerous and had left the fish blind. Pictured: Star the fish ahead of the procedure . The operation to remove the cancerous eye was carried out by exotic animals expert Brigitte Lord (right), who received help from a vet to keep the goldfish under anaesthetic (left) and a nurse to monitor its heart rate . The procedure was paid for by the Gordon family, who also shelled out for an operation to remove a lump from their other pet goldfish, Nemo. Both operations, carried out last Friday, cost the family nearly £500 . The operations, which cost nearly £500, were carried out on the same day. Star, a six-inch goldfish, was welcomed into the Gordon family 12 years ago after being won at a local fair by Abby Gordon, now a 21-year-old student in Glasgow. The pet fish live with her mother Janie in Dollar, Clackmannanshire. Mrs Gordon said: 'I know it seems like a lot of money to spend on an operation for a goldfish but what was the alternative? 'I think we've a social responsibility to look after our pets and I know my daughter would have been distraught if anything had happened to the goldfish. 'Star is fine.He's swimming about happily and the vets have shown me how to give antibiotics too. 'I probably couldn't have chosen a better vets. I'm not sure anyone else would have attempted it.' During the operation on Friday, the vets used Doppler ultrasound equipment to listen through earphones to pulse sounds in order to evaluate Star's blood flow. To keep the fish asleep throughout the procedure, the pet was syringed with oxygenated water containing anaesthetic. Star, a six-inch goldfish, was welcomed into the Gordon family 12 years ago after being won at a local fair by Abby Gordon, now a 21-year-old student in Glasgow. Pictured: The fish with its cancerous eye before the op . Janie Gordon said: 'I know it seems like a lot of money to spend on an operation for a goldfish but what was the alternative? I think we've a social responsibility to look after our pets.' Pictured: Star after the operation . After the procedure, Star (right) was delicately held in a bucket of oxygenated water before being joined by the Gordon family's other goldfish, Nemo, who underwent an operation on the same day to remove a lump . After the procedure, Star was delicately held in a bucket of oxygenated water and, with its mouth kept open, was gently moved, mimicking the swimming action. This allowed water to flow over its gills for about for eight minutes, before the fish effectively came back to life. The operation was carried out by exotic animals expert Brigitte Lord, who received help from a vet to keep the goldfish under anaesthetic and a nurse to monitor its heart rate. Ms Lord said: 'This is a highly specialist field, using anaesthetic on a goldfish carries a very high risk and I'm delighted for the owner that everything went okay and the owners are happy. 'The financial value of a goldfish may be quite small but I think the fact that someone should have paid that much for an operation reflects the true value of the bond between pets and humans.' Star and Nemo are now recovering from surgery in their tank, which is situated in the kitchen of Mrs Gordon's home. Adam Tjolle, managing director of Inglis Veterinary Hospital, said: 'In all my years as a vet I have never known anything quite like this. It's been an amazing experience.' Star and Nemo are not the first goldfish to undergo traumatic operations. Earlier this year, Australian veterinarian Dr Tristan Rich - head of exotics and wildlife medicine at Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne - performed micro-surgery on a goldfish called George. The 10-year-old pet had a large tumour on its head, making it difficult for the fish to breathe and swim. The amphibian was also unable to eat properly and the tumour was affecting its ability to see. Its owners had been monitoring the growth of the tumour, which was sprouting from its head, and decided to opt for the surgery which cost $200 (£105). During the 'fiddly' operation, the tumour - which had stretched down to the fish's skull - was delicately cut out. Australian veterinarian Dr Tristan Rich - head of exotics and wildlife medicine at Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne - performed micro-surgery on a goldfish called George to remove a large tumour on its head . In January, a devoted pet owner in Norfolk spent £300 on saving the life of his goldfish after it became constipated. The man, who was not been named, took the fish to a veterinary practice in North Walsham, Norfolk, after noticing it was struggling to eliminate waste. He had hoped it would be a simple procedure but was told by staff at the Toll Barn Veterinary Centre that the delicate surgery required to save his pet would cost £300. The company boss initially turned down the treatment but changed his mind 10 minutes later and went back to give the go-ahead. Vet Faye Bethell, 29, was then tasked with carefully administering anaesthetic before using tiny instruments to remove a lump close to the fish's backside. A second lump was removed from his dorsal fin before the fish was returned to water and handed back to his grateful owner. A pet owner took his goldfish (pictured) to a veterinary practice in North Walsham, Norfolk, in January after noticing it was struggling to eliminate waste. The fish underwent an operation to relieve its constipation .

Star the goldfish underwent fiddly operation to remove cancerous right eye . Gordon family, from Fife, paid vet to carry out operation to help blind fish . Family's other goldfish Nemo also underwent procedure to remove a lump . Two operations cost family nearly £500 but they said it was worth the cash .

 and the treatment was so successful the cancer was not actually removed, but it meant his other eye could be saved, according to the Daily Mail. Owner Jane McDonald, from Fife, said: “I wanted to help Star stay alive after my vet told me he had cancer. Star survived the operation but the procedure was so delicate that it is likely that the tumour may have been too deep in his eye to remove with only one chance. The goldfish is staying at the surgery where he is recovering well, although he isn’t able to open his eye.
“He is eating and swimming and acting like his normal self. He can recognise us and responds to our voices. We hope in the next couple of days or so the swelling will decrease and they can do the second op so he can open his eye. Star will have to take medication for the rest of his life but they have given us an estimate that it will extend his life by 6 to 8 months.” Star survived a brain tumor in 2007 and the couple said the latest operation had saved his life. They hope the treatment will extend his life by 6 to 8 months.
Ms McDonald said he had been suffering from his illness for some time and was put on medication for a long time. The cancer returned and Ms McDonald said: “He is a fighter and has been through so much in his short life. He is a survivor and we just couldn’t give up on him when we found out he had developed a tumour again. It is a strange thing to have a goldfish but I think Star is my life partner. He has been with me for 8 years and I just adore him. We had to give it a go to help his chances and I am just thankful I got him the treatment he needed.”
The vet said cancer had previously spread around Star’s eye, but the treatment had stopped the cancer developing further and Star’s eye had stopped weeping. He was described as “resilient and amazing” as he fought back from life-threatening disease.
A spokesman for the charity The Fish In Hospital said: “We have done cases like this but for more exotic fish, eels, even sharks. The fact is that a lot of people are desperate for a pet that is so much loved that they will do anything to keep them alive. The treatment that is available on the market for companion fish, is a lot like this. The owner is not prepared to give up and sometimes they will


A college basketball star who was found dead in her dorm room in January died from a blood cell disorder, not from choking on gum in her sleep, as police first believed. The Washington County coroner announced Shanice Clark's cause of death on Monday, nearly two months after the 21-year-old was found inside her room at California University of Pennsylvania. She was found unresponsive at 3.03am on January 18. She was rushed to Monongahela Valley Hospital but she could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 4.10am. California borough police said that a preliminary report from medical personnel indicated the death appeared to be accidental and there were suggestions she had choked on gum. Tragedy: Shanice Clark, 21, was found unresponsive in her dorm room at California University of Pennsylvania, where she played basketball, in January. She passed away from a blood cell disorder . But Coroner Tim Warco blamed it on sickle cell trait, a blood cell disorder that often does not have any symptoms but can lead to sudden death in extremely rare cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. University officials said they were 'deeply saddened' by the death of the 6-foot senior forward, who had played two dozen games for the Vulcans last season. Athletic director Karen Hjerpe called Clark 'a bright student and talented player' and said 'her smile and personality will be missed'. Clark, a communications major, had hoped to become a broadcaster and chose the school because of its good facilities after transferring from Santa Fe College in Florida. But friend Cleveland Clunis told the Toronto Star that she would often joke that she had gone to the university for a different reason. Talented: The 6-foot senior forward, from Canada, had played two dozen games for the Vulcans last season . Loss: Clark, who was from Toronto, was a communications major at the California University of Pennsylvania, pictured, and had dreamed of becoming a broadcaster, devastated friends and family said . 'For Shanice, it was, "There's a good hairstylist",' said Clunis, the founder of a non-profit basketball program she had attended. 'When she shares that with you, you can't help but laugh.' He said that this sense of humor had made her popular among students and staff. 'She could start a conversation with you from morning and still have you laughing and interested till sundown,' he said. Geraldine M. Jones, interim university president, said in a statement after her death: 'Our thoughts today are with the family of Shanice Clark, a senior from Ontario, Canada, who passed away early this morning. 'On behalf of California University of Pennsylvania, I extend my deepest sympathy to all of Shanice's family and friends. She will be missed by her teammates and coaches, her classmates, and by the entire campus community.' Clark left behind her mother, Kashaeka Fearon, and a younger sister. Sickle cell trait means someone is carrying a gene for a serious condition called sickle cell disease, which can cause red blood cells to change their shapes, potentially causing pain and infections. If someone has sickle cell trait, it does not mean they have sickle cell disease. Instead, they are a carrier of the trait and can pass it on to their children. If they were to have children with someone else carrying the trait, that child has a 25 per cent chance of being born with sickle cell disease. People with sickle cell trait have red blood cells with abnormal hemoglobin (a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs and returns carbon dioxide from tissues back to the lungs) but they have enough normal hemoglobin for red cells to successfully carry oxygen around the body. While it is extremely rare for sickle cell trait to cause any complications, there can be problems in conditions of severe physical stress, including low oxygen conditions, severe dehydration, severe physical exercise or very high altitude. In these situations, cells can change their shapes, causing pain and further complications. Sickle cell trait, which is more commonly found in African-Americans than other races, is diagnosed with a simple blood test. Couples planning to have children may want to find out if they have the trait to see if their kids might inherit sickle cell disease.

Shanice Clark, from Toronto, was found unresponsive in her room at the California University of Pennsylvania in the early hours of January 18 . Early investigations suggested she had choked on gum in her sleep . But on Monday, the coroner blamed it on sickle cell trait, a blood cell disorder that can lead to sudden death in extremely rare cases . The senior, who had played two dozen games for the Vulcans last season, was remembered for her sharp wit and determination .

 Tuesday, and it was later reported that the 19-year-old "basketball player's jaw was broken, ribs were bruised and there were bite marks on her body, among other injuries," according to The Washington Post.
Shanice Clark, a 2011 college basketball player, died of natural causes from a blood disorder
After reviewing medical records and witness statements, the coroner stated that the 6'1 guard was dead due to a disorder called hypoparathyroidism. This rare disorder is an inability to make or use the hormone parathyroid, which keeps the bones strong and releases calcium to the blood — two critical functions.
"Hypoparathyroidism is a congenital or genetic abnormality in the hormone parathyroid gland," explains the Mayo Clinic. "This results in a decrease in the amount of parathyroid hormone in the blood." In most cases, the condition is diagnosed in infancy and treated with the hormone parathyroid hormone. However, Clark was born with only one functioning parathyroid gland. In January, she began experiencing muscle cramps and was later admitted to a hospital in Washington.
An autopsy was performed and found Shanice Clark's cause of death to be "cardiac arrest, acute myopathy with hypoparathyroidism, and hypostatic edema with pulmonary thromboembolism." These are three terms that mean she died of heart and lung complications, and a pulmonary thromboembolism is a type of blood clot.
Shanice Clark's family is still processing their grief
The 19-year-old's cause of death has been confirmed, but it won't be easy for her loved ones to comprehend. "We are still processing this," her mother, LaToya Jones, told The Washington Post. Shanice's twin brother, Marcus, has been the family's caretaker in the wake of the tragedy, as the grieving family is "unable to cope with her death." Shanice was a rising sophomore at the Maryland campus of her university, the University of Maryland, College Park.
LaToya said that her daughter was not a fan of college life, preferring to be back home in Jamaica "doing more of a routine." But she went to the US to play basketball on a basketball scholarship, so she did the best she could. "It just made me sad because I think her dream was for me to send her to school," LaToya told


(CNN)When Oakland Raiders NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew retired recently at just 29 years old, he said his life had been focused on football for 24 years and he needed a change. It's no wonder he wanted out. He has been playing football since he was 5 years old. Sound too young to strap on a helmet? Not really. Jones-Drew is no different from thousands of other boys whose parents introduce them to the gridiron just a few years out of diapers. Football is America's favorite sport. We pride ourselves on our toughness, on our ability to get back up when we're knocked down. What better sport is there to teach those lessons? But today, youth football is not looking like the best option. In 2012, an estimated 225,287 children -- down 9.5% since 2010 -- between the ages of 5 and 14 played Pop Warner football, in which the weight class for the 5-year-olds ranges from 35 to 79 pounds. With such lightweight boys competing with children more than twice their size, it's no wonder parents feel less inclined to put their kids in this sport. But not too long ago, parents thought nothing of sending their children out on the football field to run around and burn up a little energy. Many parents still insist youth football is safe. What could be healthier for a boy? Certainly, it beats sitting in front of a computer all day. That's exactly what Debra Pyka thought when she signed up her son, Joseph Chernach, for Pop Warner football in Wisconsin, then later in Michigan, when he was 11 years old, in 1997. If only she knew then that her son would be dead at 25. Joseph hung himself in his mother's shed on June 7, 2012. His brain was later found to have severe CTE, a degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions in football. Joseph Chernach had played sports, including wrestling, pole vaulting and football most of his young life. But he spent almost four years playing Pop Warner football from ages 11 to 14. "My son was the class comedian, loved school, always fun to be around," Pyka told me. "But we noticed after high school Joseph changed. He got depressed, angry, paranoid and withdrew from sports and his friends. We just didn't know why. After learning about CTE, I knew he had it even before we got the results. The symptoms were all there." Pyka is convinced those early days playing Pop Warner football triggered her son's CTE. Last month, Pyka and her son's estate filed a lawsuit against Pop Warner football for $5 million, claiming the nonprofit failed to protect its youngest players and warn them and their parents about the permanent dangers of head trauma. The lawsuit further alleges that Pyka's son and other children were intentionally put in danger because Pop Warner used amateur coaches with short tenures, who were never properly trained in the game of football, injury prevention, concussion or head injury identification. So now, this mother is on a mission. She wants to stop children younger than 14 from playing tackle football in youth leagues. "I don't want any kids to suffer the way my son suffered, the way my family suffered. It's devastating. Young children should not be allowed to play tackle football until they reach high school," said Pyka. Since filing her suit, Pyka, a registered nurse, said she's found some solace by connecting with other parents who want to make football safer for children, but she also has received plenty of hateful emails criticizing her for allowing her son to play in the first place. Critics say that she knew what she was doing when she signed her son up to play football and some even suggest that Pyka should be charged with murder for allowing Joseph to sign up for football, Pyka told me, clearly upset. "I didn't sign my son up to get a brain disease," she said. "We wanted him to play sports, to be active. We knew nothing about concussions then. It wasn't discussed much. It's still not talked about enough today. Should we all be arrested for letting our kids play football?" Clearly, the lawsuit faces obstacles, especially since Chernach did play other sports and it may be hard to prove the CTE was triggered by injuries suffered while playing for Pop Warner. But Pyka and her attorney, Gordon Johnson, at the Brain Injury Law Group, which is representing Chernach's estate, insist this case is not just about winning. They are going after the economics of youth football leagues. And if they win the lawsuit it may be less possible for those leagues to buy the insurance policies that allow very young children to play tackle football. "We have to prove that Pop Warner was a substantial factor in him getting it [CTE], and we knew from research that playing under 12 is when you're most vulnerable," Johnson told media when he filed the suit. "The airing of these issues will benefit everybody," he added. Jon Butler, executive director of Pop Warner Little Scholars Inc., told me on Thursday via email:  "Pop Warner has been, and will continue to be, at the forefront of addressing player safety. ... While there is incredible sadness in this story, we question the merits of singling out four years of youth football amid a career of sports that lasted through high school." Still, when the lawyer talk is done, Debra Pyka won't get her son back. And amazingly, she did not sound bitter. And she's not out to end football. But "a 5-year-old playing football, it's ridiculous to have them out there banging their brains around." Some good has come out of all this, said Pkya. More people are talking about CTE. She said it's important that parents listen closely to NFLers like 24-year-old Chris Borland, the San Francisco 49ers linebacker who retired this week after just one season. Borland said he quit because he was afraid of brain injuries. He understands how his decision may affect parents and he has a message: . " Parents ... if you weigh the risk and decide this is something you want to partake in. ... It's a free country. ... But If I could relay a message to kids and their parents it would be twofold: Number one: make an informed decision. And number two: Don't play through concussions. Who knows how many hits is too many?" Considering the consequences, it just may be one of the toughest decisions a parent has to make.

Roxanne Jones: There's a reason why young NFL players are retiring from the sport . She says youth football is not looking like the best option for kids; parents should know the risks .

 after a four-year career riddled with injuries.
Last Sunday, Washington Redskins running back Alfred Morris, 25, set an NFL record when he had 773 yards in seven games. No one can say whether he will be the last of his kind to see such lofty numbers, but for his generation -- or for those coming after -- there may be an easier way to avoid becoming the next Jones-Drew.
"He played a lot of football, so he's coming in with a lot of wear and tear already," said Washington Redskins' offensive coordinator Sean McVay, who is overseeing Morris' rookie season. "If you can reduce that wear and tear by taking away what you've done (in the game), I think that's the way of the future."
McVay is speaking of the "hybrid" running back of the future, one who's a bit more elusive, uses cutback or burst moves and can also handle the ball on short, wide and crossing routes.
In essence, he's a do-it-all back, a more modern version of the "every-down back" who can also excel in pass protection.
"I don't want to be a prototypical 225-pound back coming out of college because I'm 225, I think there's a better way to do it," Morris said. "I feel like 215 is good enough. You have guys running backs 255 to 260 (pounds) at the college level. You don't need a fullback to block anymore. You can just put a safety back there.
"I could be more elusive than I am now."
Running back Alfred Morris was a do-it-all back during college, and it's a trend that seems to be growing in the NFL.
"They say you're a 'one-cut' back," Morris said. "To me, that's just a generic term for anybody who can go up the field. It doesn't necessarily mean just straight ahead, but it can mean any route that's not a down-and-inside type of route."
Jones-Drew would be a good case study for a more hybrid back. The former Florida State standout could catch the ball well and run with power, but his running style caused a lot of wear and tear on his body. Now, with his retirement, Jones


(CNN)The cost of college has rapidly increased over the past 30 years. Students today face annual costs, between tuition and living, that can easily exceed $10,000 at a community college, $18,000 at a public four-year college (in-state), and $40,000 at a private four-year school. It's unsurprising that today's students often graduate with large debt loads. More than two-thirds of students graduate with debt. And the average amount of debt owed is about $30,000. Given the cost of college, students and families need to know that they're making a good investment. That's why we need to move to a system where we measure learning outcomes, not just time spent in a classroom accumulating credits. A college degree is the only sure path to middle-class security, and because young people and their parents know that, the cost of college, and the availability of loans and other aid, has become a powerful political issue. But for all the attention paid to the price of college, we haven't given enough thought to whether students and their families are getting their money's worth. Is American higher education worth the price? Are students and their families getting what they're paying for? There's plenty of evidence that for many of them, the answer is no. In 2006, a government study found that nearly 70% of college graduates could not perform basic tasks like comparing opposing editorials. In a 2011 book, "Academically Adrift," researchers studied 2,000 students at two dozen universities over four years and found that 45% of them showed no significant gains on a test of critical thinking, complex reasoning, and communication skills after two years of college. Even at the end of four years, 36% of the students hadn't gained those skills. Given the evidence, maybe it's not a surprise that employers aren't impressed by recent college graduates. Employers want the skills that higher education says it provides to students: the ability to critically think, communicate, work in a team, write effectively, and adapt. Yet only about one-quarter of employers say that colleges and universities are doing a good job in preparing students effectively for the challenges of today's global economy. A recent Gallup poll found that only 11% of business leaders strongly agreed that college graduates have the skills necessary to succeed on the job. In addition to money, these graduates have spent hours and hours in classrooms and taking tests, but the time doesn't seem to have translated into learning. Why is this? Perhaps it's as simple as this: We measure education in terms of time, rather than learning. A four-year degree attests that you have acquired 120 credits. That's an accidental result of the credit hour system, which was created by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie more than 100 years ago, for the purpose of providing struggling professors with pensions. At the turn of the 20th century, Carnegie created a $10 million free pension fund to help professors retire. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which was set up to administer the fund, determined that only "full-time" faculty would qualify for pensions, which they defined as teaching 12 "credit units," with each unit equal to one hour of faculty-student contact time per week, over a 15-week semester. While originally a narrow measure of faculty workload, the credit hour quickly morphed into much more. The Carnegie Foundation warned against using the credit hour as a proxy for student learning, but the temptation of an easy-to-understand and seemingly standardized measure was too great to resist. It just made organizing the whole higher education enterprise much easier. If credit hours truly reflected a standardized unit of learning, they would be fully transferable across institutions. An hour in Arizona is an hour in New York. But colleges routinely reject credits earned at other colleges, suggesting that even though they use credit hours themselves, they know they are not a reliable measure of how much students have learned.  Many students, however, believe the fiction that the credit hour is a standardized currency and assume that credits will transfer from one school to the next. This is an unfortunate and costly assumption, as community college students in Louisiana will tell you. Until recently, Louisiana students with an associate degree typically lost between 21 and 24 credits when transferring to a four-year state school. That's a year of time and money lost. Given that nearly 60% of students in the United States attend two or more colleges, the nontransfer of credits has huge costs, not only to individuals, but also to the federal government and states that are financing this duplicative classroom time. If higher education doesn't trust its own credits, why should anyone else? And Louisiana students aren't alone; transfer students across the country lose credits, which lengthens their time to get a degree. So we have two problems: Students who have earned credits -- at great expense in time and money-- can't use or transfer them. Others who have accumulated costly credits haven't learned much. And then there's a third dimension: Millions of people who have learned a great deal have no "credit" because they learned it at the wrong place — that is to say, not at a "college." Someone who has spent the last 10 years working as a nurse's aid in a hospital who decides to go get a nursing degree has to start from scratch, taking introductory courses he could probably teach, because colleges treat those without credits as blank slates. Employees at a biotech company with a high-quality on-the-job training program might learn more than someone in a two-year college science program, but unless this training is attached to an accredited institution of higher learning, the learning won't "count." For the millions of adult workers looking to retrain and reskill, the focus on time rather than learning, especially when between family and work, their time is scarce, is a daunting proposition. State and federal governments add to the problem, because while they spend hundreds of billions on higher education each year, most of it is for time served, in the form of credit hours, rather than learning achieved. We need to stop counting time and start counting learning. What could that look like? We don't have to wonder; some schools are experimenting with measuring learning rather than time—some for decades. One relatively new program is Southern New Hampshire University's College for America, or CfA, an online "competency-based" Associate of Arts degree aimed at working adults. The program has no courses, no credit hours and no grades. The school has broken down what students with a degree from CfA should know and be able to do, what it calls competencies. CfA worked closely with employers to identify the competencies employers were looking for, like communication, critical thinking and teamwork. Then faculty designed real-world tasks and projects to determine whether students had mastered each competency. Unlike in credit-hour courses, CfA has no seat-time requirements. Students can move through the program as quickly as they can demonstrate mastery of the competencies. Someone who worked at a PR firm might whiz through the communications competencies and spend more time on the math competencies. And the faster students can progress, the less they will ultimately pay. Students pay $1,250 for all-they-can-learn in six months. This means they can spend their precious time and money learning what they don't already know, rather than wasting it on what they already do. Students at CfA can be confident that their time and money are well spent and, at the end, they will have a very clear picture of what they know and can do. CfA is not the only one to offer this to students, nor the only model. Hundreds of schools, from Antioch to the University of Michigan to Purdue University, are looking to offer competency-based certificate, associate, and baccalaureate degree programs.  How are universities staying afloat financially with such low tuition? In many cases, the answer is surprisingly simple—and, sadly, not commonplace in higher education—by focusing on what students need in order to, wait for it, learn. Fancy amenities, great football teams and sprawling college campuses may bring attention, but they have little to nothing to do with student learning. Some competency-based programs don't focus on research -- faculty are hired for specific expertise, like curriculum design, English literature or advising. Other programs use technology and data analytics to help students and faculty understand where students are doing well and where they are struggling. This allows for more targeted, personalized support by faculty. There is, however, a downside for students: Self-paced competency-based programs do not fit in neatly with the historically time-based credit hour, making it difficult for students in these types of programs to receive state and federal support. Without access to these dollars, the programs will remain one-offs and unavailable to the majority of Americans who could use them. Only recently has the federal government recognized the role it could play in encouraging the move from seat time to learning by redirecting some of its nearly $150 billion-plus financial aid budget. The U.S. Department of Education is encouraging innovation by colleges looking to experiment with alternatives to the credit hour, and there is strong bipartisan interest in both the House and Senate to explore innovative ways of paying for learning, rather than time. As higher education becomes increasingly necessary and expensive, measuring time rather than learning is a luxury that students, taxpayers and the nation can no longer afford. Paying for what students learn and can do, rather than how or where they spent their time, would go a long way toward providing students and the nation with desperately needed, high-quality degrees and credentials.

Is American higher education worth the price? Are students and their families getting what they're paying for? Amy Laitinen: The big problem is that we measure education in terms of time, rather than learning .

, four-year college and $40,000 at a private, four-year university. A growing concern is that these high costs are pushing students to take on high levels of debt, particularly when they graduate. Nearly two-thirds of all students graduate with student debt.
A new report from the Brookings Institution shows why that debt burden is growing so large. According to the data, 72% of students who graduated between 1979 and 2009 with college debt borrowed for their education, compared with only 45% of those who graduated from a public high school in that time period. And the biggest change in college financing over that same time was not an increase in borrowing, but the growth in grants and subsidies. But while the growth in funding has not kept pace with the cost of higher education, the Brookings report states that subsidies for student aid need to expand further to keep pace with demand.
This has been a point of contention in the political discourse around funding higher education. While Republican lawmakers have argued in favor of expanding education tax credits, these are seen as a mechanism of giving the wealthy tax breaks, or that some states have seen as a means of giving out free federal money to public colleges. Democrats have proposed a much-less sweeping approach -- and one that is much less likely to pass the Senate -- that would provide subsidies and tax cuts to low-income college students and would close some of the gaps in state funding for public schools.
The Brookings report, "The Evolution of College Financing in the U.S.," was released Tuesday, a day before the House Ways and Means Committee planned to hold a hearing to explore how college financing should change.
The Brookings report's authors say that the changes in student lending mirror those of health care payments. While subsidies and government assistance have grown to help Americans afford college, there's an ongoing debate around how much they should grow, or if they should be eliminated entirely.
"We live in a global, knowledge-based economy where people are competing more, and the skills of knowledge workers are much more crucial than in the past," says Andrew H. Lo, a professor of finance at Harvard University and author of a 2015 paper on the subject, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. "We have to find a way to make sure people can afford an education."
Lo says that the current state of student debt is a result of not only the changing financing picture but also the increasing demand for higher


(CNN)Here are some of the names you might be hearing about as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev goes on trial in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings: . • Dzhokhar "Jahar" Tsarnaev: Born July 22, 1993, Tsarnaev and his family immigrated to the United States and applied for political asylum when he was 8. A popular student, Tsarnaev attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and was captain of his high school wrestling team. He received a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Tsarnaev was known on campus for selling marijuana, according to court testimony. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in September 2012, seven months before the bombings. Federal agents say surveillance video captured him near the second blast site, where 8-year-old Martin Richards was killed. After the bombings, Tsarnaev returned to campus and stayed there until the FBI publicly identified him as a suspect. Tsarnaev texted a friend to come to his room and take whatever he wanted as he would not be coming back. He and older brother Tamerlan went on the run, allegedly killing an MIT officer, carjacking an SUV and engaging Watertown, Massachusetts, police in a firefight. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed, and Dzhokhar was discovered the next day, badly wounded, hiding in a boat. • Tamerlan Tsarnaev: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, born October 21, 1986, was an accomplished boxer. He won the New England Golden Gloves heavyweight division in 2009-2010. Known for his flashy clothes and in-your-face self-confidence, Tamerlan aspired to join the U.S. boxing team despite being only a permanent resident and therefore ineligible. In early 2011, Russia asked the FBI to look at Tsarnaev's activities. After interviewing Tsarnaev and family members, the FBI said it "did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign, and those results were provided to the foreign government." In January 2012, Tsarnaev left New York for Russia. It's not clear what he did while there, but Tsarnaev's father has said his son was with him at all times. He returned to the United States in July 2012. Seventy-two hours before the bombing, he was seen working out at the Wai Kru mixed martial arts gym with his younger brother. He was killed following a gunfight with Watertown police after his brother tried to free him with a stolen SUV but ran him down instead, according to an indictment against the younger Tsarnaev. • Anzor Tsarnaev: Anzor Tsarnaev is the father of the Tsarnaev brothers. Originally from Chechnya, the family was exiled by Russians and settled in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan before seeking political asylum in the United States. The elder Tsarnaev fixed cars for a living, making ends meet through welfare. He and wife Zubeidat divorced in 2011, and he returned to the Russian republic of Dagestan, where he now lives. • Zubeidat Tsarnaeva: Mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva worked as a home health aide before switching to facials and skin care, both at a local spa and in her Cambridge home. She was charged with shoplifting in summer 2012 and soon after moved to Dagestan. If she returns to the United States, she could be arrested for failing to resolve the shoplifting charges. She has phoned several times during her younger son's incarceration. • Ailina Tsarnaeva: Ailina Tsarnaeva is the sister of the Tsarnaev brothers. At age 16, she entered an arranged marriage that produced a son and lasted little more than a year, according to an investigative piece by The Boston Globe. Last year, Tsarnaeva was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment, accused of making a bomb threat against the mother of her boyfriend's child. She denies the charge. Her last known address was in North Bergen, New Jersey, near her sister and the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. • Bella Tsarnaeva: Sister Bella Tsarnaev also reportedly has a child from a failed marriage, according to The Boston Globe. She was arrested in New Jersey on marijuana charges, and she entered into a pretrial intervention program. • Katherine Russell: Raised as a Christian in Providence, Rhode Island, "Katie," as she was known in high school, went to Suffolk University in Boston but dropped out before graduating. She married Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2010 in a small, private ceremony officiated by a Boston imam. She worked as a home health aide to support the couple's young daughter. Her last known apartment was just blocks from the last listed address of Ailina and Bella Tsarnaeva, her sisters-in-law. By all indications, Russell has chosen to be near -- and with -- her dead husband's family in New Jersey, rather than with her parents in Rhode Island. Russell had one dust-up with the law -- a June 2007 arrest for stealing $67 in goods from Old Navy. She acknowledged the theft and gave back the merchandise, according to court records. • Ruslan Tsarni: The uncle of the accused bombing suspect, he widely condemned the attack on the Boston Marathon, saying nephew Tamerlan "messed up his life, that's why he decided (to) take lives of innocent people." • Ibragim Todashev: Ibragrim Todashev was Tamerlan's sparring partner at the Wai Kru mixed martial arts gym near Cambridge. The two bonded over Chechnya and religion, sometimes laying out rugs to pray to Mecca inside the small gym. Todashev moved to Florida in fall 2011, not long after a brutal triple slaying in Waltham, Massachusetts. One of the victims was fellow sparring partner Brendan Mess who, along with two friends, were nearly decapitated, with marijuana strewn over their bodies. Authorities began taking a closer look at possible involvement by both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Todashev, who was allegedly writing out a "confession" when, authorities say, he tried to attack an FBI agent. The agent fatally shot Todashev, whose family maintains he is innocent. • Dias Kadyrbayev: Dias Kadyrbayev, a friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's, pleaded guilty to "obstructing justice with the intent to impede the Boston Marathon bombing investigation," and he also pleaded guilty to conspiracy with his actions in the days immediately following the bombing. Kadyrbayev was charged with four counts, including obstructing justice and conspiracy for throwing Tsarnaev's backpack into a trash bin after discovering it contained fireworks with gunpowder, and removing a jar of Vaseline and a computer thumb drive. Investigators later recovered the backpack at a landfill. Kadyrbayev also took Tsarnaev's computer to his off-campus apartment, where the FBI later seized it. He is awaiting sentencing. 13th Juror: Fishy case could silence accused bomber's pals . • Azamat Tazhayakov: In July, a jury found Azamat Tazhayakov guilty of obstructing justice and conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the removal of a backpack with potential evidence from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's dorm room after the bombings. Tazhayakov was another friend of Tsarnaev's and was Kadyrbayev's roommate. Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov are both nationals of Kazakhstan who were temporarily living in the United States on student visas while attending the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Tazhayakov is expected to appeal. • Robel Phillipos: Robel Phillipos, also a friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's, was convicted in October on two counts of lying to federal agents investigating the 2013 bombing. Prosecutors said Phillipos lied to investigators about being in Tsarnaev's college dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth after the bombings. Phillipos knew Tsarnaev from high school. According to court documents, Phillipos hadn't seen or talked to Tsarnaev for at least two months before the bombing. Phillipos has filed a motion for judgment of acquittal and new trial.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is on trial in 2013 Boston Marathon bombings . His parents, who are divorced, have both moved to Russian republic of Dagestan . His sisters and brother's widow are believed to be living in New Jersey .

ev, 21, is charged with 30 counts, including using a weapon of mass destruction, causing injury to multiple people, carrying out an assault on a group of people and destruction of property resulting in death. He's also charged with obstruction of justice and lying to police. • Ibragim Todashev, 27, was shot to death by an FBI agent in Orlando, Florida, in 2013 after he told investigators Tsarnaev was not responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, a source familiar with the FBI investigation told CNN. • Stephen Silva, 21, was the other man who died in the Boston Marathon bombings. • Martin Richard, 8, was one of three people who died in the blasts. The 5-year-old, who was watching the marathon from a wheelchair with his family, was the youngest person killed in the blasts. • Krystle Campbell, 29, was waiting at the finish line for boyfriend Jeff Bauman when the bombs went off. Bauman later described her as "the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my life." Campbell died. Bauman lost both of his legs. • Bill Richard, the father of the Richard's who were killed, told CNN at the time of the bombing that he didn't understand how someone could kill his child. But, he said of Tsarnaev, "Maybe he did it. He's a terrorist, man -- he's a terrorist. He killed three people. He's a terrorist." • Jeff Bauman, 28, who lost both of his legs, was standing near the Boston Marathon finish line when the bombs went off. He told CNN's Anderson Cooper he didn't blame Tsarnaev. "I had a couple people ask me, you know, is he a terrorist, and no, he's not a terrorist," Bauman said. "I know what one is." • Carmen Marroquin, 29, is a 29-year-old nurse at Boston Medical Center. She was critically injured in the Boston Marathon bombing. A family member said Marroquin is in Boston's Harborview Medical Center, and her "condition is fair." • Karynne Tencer is one of several people who was injured in the attack whose names are not being made public, the Boston Globe reported Thursday. • Boston College student Sean Collier was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police


Medical student Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir (above), who has travelled to Syria to treat Jihadi fighters, once praised the Charlie Hebdo murders . A British medical student who travelled to Syria to treat Jihadi fighters in Islamic State hospitals once praised the Charlie Hebdo murders, it emerged last night. Private schoolgirl Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir sent a smiling selfie to her sister as she crossed the border from Turkey on March 13 to reach Islamic State territory. The respected surgeon’s daughter is one of nine British doctors and students in their late teens or early 20s who are now believed to be volunteering in hospitals there. Their families have all flocked to the border in a desperate attempt to bring their children home, saying that they had been ‘cheated, brainwashed’ by IS militants. Yesterday, their parents issued a joint statement claiming that their children had travelled to the border to take part in ‘humanitarian’ work and had ‘excellent moral capabilities’. But posts on what is believed to be Miss Abdelgadir’s Twitter account suggest that her views are less than moral and that she has indeed gone to work with IS. She once retweeted: ‘The pictures that the 2 journalists produced on Islam and prophet Muhammed (saw) was more horrific then their killing.’ On the account, @Lenaalinglingg, she also called for Sharia law, retweeted a statement that homosexuality is a disease and criticised terror arrests, calling them ‘silly’. The private schoolgirl condemned Muslims who joined the ‘not in my name’ campaign which rejects IS and Muslims who wore poppy headscarves to mark Remembrance Day. She also once retweeted: ‘Fighting is not violence. Violence is tyranny, oppression, suppression & injustice. Only thru FIGHTING can we get OUT of VIOLENCE. #peace.’ Yesterday, it emerged that she is an ‘incredibly bright’ schoolgirl who attended Wisbech Grammar School in Cambridgeshire where fees are £12,000 a year. The students’ parents believe that they have gone to Turkey to offer ‘voluntary medical help’ to Syrian refugees on the border. They did, however, acknowledge that their children were missing and, when asked whether they thought their children might have joined IS, one father replied ‘we don’t know’. ‘Our sons and daughters have always been participating in humanitarian and good cause social work,’ the statement from the families said. ‘They have come to Turkey willingly to offer voluntary medical help to those refugees who are in need of medical care on Turkey’s borders.’ The nine medics have been named as Mohammed Wael Fadlallah, Tasneem Suliman, Ismail Hamdoun, Nada Sami Kader, Mohammed Elbadri Ibrahim, Rawan Kamal Zine El Abidine, Tamir Ahmed Abusibah, Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir and Sami Ahmed Kadir. Nine British medical students have travelled to Syria to work in hospitals in Islamic State-held areas. Pictured from left to right: Hisham Mohammed Fadlallah, Lena Maumoon Abdulqadir and Tamer Ahmed Ebu Sebah . The four women and five men apparently kept their plans secret from their families and fled to Syria from a medical base in Sudan. Left to right: Rowan Kamal Zine El Abidine, Sami Ahmed Kadir and Ismail Hamadoun . The medical students are believed to now be in the ISIS-held area of Tel Abyad, according to a Turkish politician. From left to right: Nada Sami Kader, Mohamed Osama Badri Mohammed and Tasneem Suleyman . Yesterday, Chris Staley, head of Wisbech Grammar in Cambridgeshire, said Miss Abdelgadir, was ‘furiously bright’, ‘very normal’ and a ‘very focused young lady’. He described her as a popular, typical pupil who had represented the school in sports including hockey, had got 7 A*s and was a member of the student council. ‘She was an incredibly bright and focused young lady who was clearly destined for great things on the medical or scientific side,’ he said. The pupil, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk, spent nine years she spent at the Cambridgeshire school before studying medicine at Khartoum’s private University of Medical Sciences and Technology. Her parents sent her to Sudan to study so that she could reconnect with her Islamic roots. Instead, however, they fear she has been radicalised. On March 12, just before she crossed the border, she sent a smiling photo and the message: ‘Don’t worry, we’ve reached Turkey and are on our way to volunteer helping wounded Syrian people.’ Schoolgirls Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15, and  Amira Abase, 15, (pictured at Gatwick airport) fled to Turkey before crossing the border into Syria where they are believed to have become ISIS jihadi brides . Her father, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, where the family live, immediately flew to Turkey to find her. He previously said: ‘We have decided not to return home unless we go with them. We sent out children to study [in Sudan] so that they would be surrounded by their culture. ‘But their decision to go to Syria has been a shock for all of us.’ Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, a Turkish opposition politician helping the families, said the medics were believed to be in Tel Abyad, which is under IS control. He told The Observer: ‘The conflict out there is fierce, so medical help must be needed. They have been cheated, brainwashed. That is what I, and their relatives, think.’ A spokeswoman for Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘Our thoughts are with Mr Abdel-Gadir and his family at this difficult time.’ The Foreign Office said it was giving consular assistance to the families of seven Britons.

Medical student Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir praised Charlie Hebdo murders . She was one of nine students who fled to Syria to treat ISIS Jihadi fighters . Private schoolgirl sent a smiling selfie to sister before crossing into Syria . Parents of the young medics have travelled to country to try and find them .

, once praised the Charlie Hebdo murders as a “step towards freedom of speech”.
Dr Abdelgadir, 21, who goes by the name Jenny in Syria, said the attack was a “justifiable reaction to a racist newspaper”, after the 12 French men were killed in an attack on the satirical publication.
The 21-year-old has been praised for her efforts in treating injured fighters since she arrived in Aleppo last summer.
But in the 15 months she’s lived there, the second-year medical student from Newcastle University has been criticised by the families of British and American recruits for helping the terrorists and supporting “terrorist actions”.
Dr Abdelgadir, who has travelled to Syria three times and is working with two charities, has also been accused of recruiting young men to go and fight for the Islamic State, and said in a radio interview she would advise her children to do the same.
Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir has become a divisive figure in Britain, especially since she began to share her thoughts on social media about Islamic State.
Dr Abdelgadir has been the subject of a Twitter campaign called #Jihadi Jenny, in which followers criticise her work with the Islamic State and share negative comments about her.
Dr Abdelgadir was born in the US to a Syrian immigrant family who worked hard to make their life in America work. Her parents are both teachers, with one being Muslim, the other Christian.
Despite the difficult situation in Syria and the constant threat of IS fighters, she said she feels happier there than she does back home in America.
“I feel so comfortable here, in my surroundings. I’m never going to be this comfortable again in America,” she told the Telegraph.
She has been accused of supporting IS, although she insists she is just there to help and has not been involved in any fighting.
“I’m not going to fight; it’s against my beliefs. I could never do that, I wouldn’t even look after the animals. People need to know that. I do believe in God. I’m there to help. I’m not there for the purpose of violence. We need more of that in Britain. If you want to stop the terrorists, go after the root cause and not after the symptom,” she said