A 23-year-old American man has lost his arm after he was attacked by an alligator near a pond behind a bar in southwest Florida early on Sunday morning, officials say.

"The responding crew treated a male patient who had an above the elbow amputation of his upper right extremity. Bystanders applied a tourniquet to the patient before we arrived," Charlotte County Fire & EMS spokesperson Todd Dunn said in a statement.

An alligator trapper was later sent to the scene of the attack near Banditos, a bar in Port Charlotte, Florida, authorities said.

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An alligator that was 3.18 metres long was removed from the pond and "humanely killed", according to a release from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in the state, the wildlife agency said.

The agency said it "places the highest priority on public safety" and cautioned people to avoid conflict with alligators by keeping a safe distance and swimming only in designated areas during daylight hours.

People should also never feed alligators, it said.

"When fed, alligators can lose their natural wariness and instead learn to associate people with the availability of food. This can lead to dangerous circumstances for yourself and other people who could encounter the alligator in the future," the agency said.

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Additionally, the agency advises residents to keep their pets on a leash and away from the water's edge because the animals may appear as prey to alligators.

Through its Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission contracts alligator trappers throughout the state to remove alligators that may pose a threat. Residents may call a hotline to report concerns about the animals.

"Generally, an alligator may be considered a nuisance if it's at least four feet in length and believed to pose a threat to people, pets or property," the agency's website states.

The program aims to "proactively address alligator threats in developed areas, while conserving alligators in areas where they naturally occur," according to the site.

The community of Port Charlotte is about 45 kilometres north of Fort Myers.

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A group of anti-Putin Russian nationals – who are aligned with the Ukrainian army – has claimed responsibility for an attack in Russian's southwestern region of Belgorod, as Moscow said it was fighting a group of saboteurs there.

Shelling damaged an administrative building, several residential buildings, and a kindergarten in the area, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who said there were no fatalities.

In a Telegram post, groups calling themselves the "Freedom of Russia Legion" and "Russian Volunteer Corps" said they had "liberated" a settlement in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.

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A Ukrainian official acknowledged that the units had carried out an operation in the area but insisted they were acting independently.

"We can confirm that this operation was carried out by Russian citizens," Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine's defence intelligence agency, told CNN.

He said the units were "part of defence and security forces" when they were in Ukraine, but were independent from Kyiv when they were not: "In Russia they are acting as independent entities."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian forces were working to push out a "sabotage and reconnaissance group," according to state media TASS.

The situation in Belgorod marks "the first time" that Ukrainian-aligned forces have launched "a cross-border land operation against Russian targets," according to CNN's Sam Kiley.

"This is on a significant scale, and clearly intended to cause considerable consternation among the local authorities at the very least, if not at the level of the Kremlin," Kiley told CNN.

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'The situation remains extremely tense'

At least eight people had been injured in the attacks, but there were no deaths among civilians in Belgorod, according to Gladkov, the regional governor.

"The situation remains extremely tense. A sabotage and reconnaissance group, the Ministry of Defence and all law enforcement agencies have entered the territory to carry out combat missions to protect our country," Gladkov said in a live-streamed address on Monday.

Gladkov said that the Belgorod government is "completing a house tour of the border villages" and in the town of Graivoron to ensure the safety of the local population.

He added that "most of the population left the territory" with personal transport and the local government is providing help for those who do not have the opportunity to leave on their own.

He also noted that the head of the district Gennady Ivanovich Bondarev, is working with the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the police to evacuate people.

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He said earlier that Russian troops, the border service, the National Guard and the FSB "are taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy."

Air defences struck down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the region, Gladkov said, adding that there were no victims and Russian authorities are looking into any potential damage on the ground.

Aleksey Baranovsky, a representative of the Kyiv-based Russian Armed Opposition Political Centre – the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion – told CNN that the operation had started on Sunday night and fighting was "ongoing."

He would not specify the number of fighters who had crossed the border into Russia.

Baranovsky said the group wanted to "liberate our motherland from the tyranny of Putin."

In a Telegram post, the groups said they had "fully liberated the settlement of Kozinka of Belgorod region. [The] first groups have entered Grayvoron."

What is the Freedom for Russia Legion?

The Freedom for Russia Legion numbers a few hundred of diehard, battle-hardened Russian volunteers fighting their own people as part of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Caesar is a member of the group. He is a former teacher, a father and has a wife living in Kyiv. He told CNN last year that he had dedicated his life to toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin and marching into Red Square and the Kremlin itself.

He is a devoted member of the Orthodox Church and is nostalgic for the Tsarist era that predated the Soviet Union. His unit is well-equipped with modern armoured vehicles, gunsights and the latest automatic weapons.

The legionnaires themselves have admitted that they're often treated with suspicion by Ukrainian soldiers but hope to win them over with gallantry on the battlefield.

Their apparent incursion along a border that is frequently used by Russian mortar teams and artillery as a firebase for attacks inside Ukraine will help further cement their reputation.

It also serves as part of ongoing psychological operations intended to undermine support for the war in Russia and the fighting spirit of Russian soldiers themselves – signalling that they could be attacked at any time and even by their own countrymen.

Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, said: "Russian forces are working to push out the Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group from the territory of the Russian Federation and destroy it. There are enough forces and means," he told reporters.

He made reference to Bakhmut, which has garnered an outsized importance in the conflict as Russian forces battle to capture the eastern Ukrainian city while failing to make gains elsewhere.

Australian beekeepers have won another important legal battle in their years-long fight with rival New Zealand apiarists for the right to use the name "mānuka honey".

In a trans-Tasman dispute which has shades of the age-old pavlova debate, Kiwi producers have tried to exclusively claim mānuka, arguing it is a Māori word and a distinctive product of New Zealand.

But where the classic meringue dessert is about parochial bragging rights, the mānuka honey trade is worth around $1 billion globally, making this food showdown a lucrative battleground with vast sums of money at stake.

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Yesterday the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand ruled a crucial copyright decision in favour of the Australian Manuka Honey Association (AMHA), securing the rights of producers to keep marketing their honey as prized mānuka.

AMHA chairman Ben McKee told 9news.com.au the ruling had huge significance for Australian producers, saying the local industry faced a "near-impossible" hit if the judgment had fallen on the side of New Zealand.

"We're all very relieved," McKee said, saying that the New Zealand government's strong support for copyrighting mānuka had led to fears this side of the Tasman that "domestic bias (in NZ) could have seeped into the ruling".

McKee said Australian producers had been waiting with bated breath because "a very strong New Zealand lobby was trying to get this trademark through" and livelihoods here were hanging in the balance.

"We always believed we were on the right side of the law," he said, while hailing "the overwhelming integrity of the judgment".

McKee said the AMHA always felt it was "on good legal footing" but absolutely nothing was being taken for granted.

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The ruling, which took nearly 18 months to be released, stated the case was "a trans-Tasman tussle of extraordinary proportions" and "one of the most complex and long running proceedings to have come before" the intellectual property office.

Central to the dispute is the plant Leptospermum scoparium, which produces the unique nectar which bees use to make mānuka honey.

"Not only is this plant native to New Zealand but it is also native to Australia," the ruling said, while acknowledging that mānuka is indeed a Māori word, and that the plant and word were regarded by Māori as taonga, a word which translates into treasure.

But the ruling went on to state that mānuka had "for many years" been used in the English language in New Zealand and Australia.

It was, the ruling said, "an English loanword, meaning it has been adopted into the English language" from the Māori language.

There is precedent for names of well-known products being copyrighted to a specific country, such as champagne in France and parmigiano reggiano in Italy.

New Zealand may appeal the ruling, McKee said, but he hoped they would "rethink their strategies now" and "we can all move on".

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An Australian victory effectively prevented New Zealand from using a favourable ruling as a precedent in other jurisdictions, he said.

Previous attempts by New Zealand to trademark the term in the UK, US and Australia have also failed.

Marketed for its health benefits, high-grade mānuka can sell in China for up to $400 per kilogram.

McKee said Australian producers made up just 5-10 per cent of global mānuka stocks and "there's plenty to go around" in international markets.

"We're not a big threat to New Zealand," he said.

"They're a much bigger industry than us, they produce a lot more honey than us.

"We will be reaching out to them again to try to work out a way that we can stop fighting each other in courtrooms, and try to work on the marketing of the honey together."

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Had the ruling gone the other way, McKee said reworking the branding and backstory of Australian mānuka would border on catastrophic.

"We've put all our efforts into marketing mānuka honey as mānuka honey and that's the name of the honey from the Leptospermum plant."

The New Zealand-based Mānuka Charitable Trust described yesterday's outcome as "disappointing in so many ways".

"We remain resolute in protecting our reo Māori (language) and the precious taonga (treasure) and today's ruling in no way deters us," chairman Pita Tipene said.

"If anything, it has made us more determined to protect what is ours on behalf of all New Zealanders and consumers who value authenticity.

"We will take some time to absorb the details of the ruling and consider our next steps."

Ray Stevenson, the Irish actor who played the villainous British governor in RRR, an Asgardian warrior in the Thor films, and series co-lead Titus Pullo in HBO's Rome, has died. He was 58.

Representatives for Stevenson told The Associated Press that he died Sunday but had no other details to share.

Stevenson was born in Lisburn in 1964. After attending the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and years of working in British television, he made his film debut in Paul Greengrass's 1998 film The Theory of Flight.

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In 2004, he appeared in Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur as a knight of the round table and several years later played the lead in the pre-Disney Marvel adaptation Punisher: War Zone.

Though Punisher was not the best-reviewed film, he'd get another taste of Marvel in the first three Thor films, in which he played Volstagg. Other prominent film roles included the Divergent trilogy, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and The Transporter: Refueled.

A looming presence at 6'4" (1.93m), Stevenson, who played his share of soldiers past and present, once said in an interview, "I guess I'm an old warrior at heart."

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On the small screen, he was the roguish Titus Pullo in Rome, a role that really got his career going in the US and got him a SAG card, at the age of 44. The popular series ran from 2005 to 2007.

"That was one of the major years of my life," Stevenson said in an interview.

"It made me sit down in my own skin and say, just do the job. The job's enough."

In the Variety review of Rome, Brian Lowery wrote that "the imposing Stevenson certainly stands out as a brawling, whoring and none-too-bright warrior – a force of nature who, despite his excesses, somehow keeps landing on his feet."

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He was Blackbeard in the Starz series Black Sails, Commander Jack Swinburne in the German television series Das Boot, and Othere on Vikings.

Stevenson also did voice work in Star Wars Rebels and The Clone Wars, as Gar Saxon, and has a role in the upcoming Star Wars live-action series Ahsoka, in which he plays Baylan Skoll. The eight-episode season is expected on Disney+ in August.

In an interview with Backstage in 2020, Stevenson said his acting idols were, "The likes of Lee Marvin (and) Gene Hackman."

"Never a bad performance, and brave and fearless within that calibre," Stevenson said.

"It was never the young, hot leading man; it was men who I could identify with."

Stevenson has three sons with Italian anthropologist Elisabetta Caraccia, who he met while working on Rome.

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As many household budgets stretch towards breaking point, new research has revealed millions of Australians have been forced into working more to cope with financial stress.

A survey by comparison site Finder showed one in four people, the equivalent of 4.8 million workers, have taken on a second job, are working longer hours or even come out of retirement to make ends meet.

Food and energy prices continue to soar, and paying mortgages or rent has become increasingly difficult for many over the past year.

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The survey of 1078 respondents found that 14 per cent of workers are now toiling longer hours to bring in more cash.

A further 7 per cent – equivalent to 1.4 million people – have gone further, taking on a second job to offset rising costs.

Around 3 per cent of people said they had no option but to take the radical step of coming out of retirement to bolster their finances, the survey said.

A confluence of economic factors has hit household budgets hard.

Last week Australia's unemployment data surprised many analysts by rising to 3.7 per cent, and that number is tipped to worsen over the year.

In an effort to rein in inflation, the Reserve Bank has bumped up the cash rate 11 times times in the last 12 months.

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All medications come at a cost — but a potential cure for a rare genetic disease comes with a seven-figure price tag.

Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is part of a groundbreaking new trial aimed at potentially curing haemophilia B — a hereditary bleeding disorder.

Patients with haemophilia B have a mutation on the F9 gene, which leads to excessive bleeding and damage to joints thanks to the lack of a protein that helps blood to clot.

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Just 40 patients in the world will be infused with the gene therapy —with each dose the equivalent of $5 million, or more than $1000 a drop.

A safe virus carrying the F9 gene is infused into the body, delivering it to the liver cells, where doctors hope the protein is made for the rest of the patient's life.

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Professor John Rasko, Head of Cell and Molecular Therapies at RPA, described the process as a "thrilling moment in the history of gene therapy".

"We are pushing the boundaries of medical technology hoping to bring cures to individuals," he said.

"It's a massive international effort that takes time and money and ultimately the manufacturing alone costs millions and millions of dollars."

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Currently haemophilia B is kept in check with up to three injections a week. This treatment could mean one infusion a lifetime.

Brett Bardney, 52, is part of the trial.

"I feel very lucky that I have been able to participate in the program – very privileged," he said.

Monday's infusion was the culmination of more than two decades of work.

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Millions of people in Mexico have been warned to prepare for a possible evacuation after increased activity from the country's most dangerous active volcano, which has been spewing ash into several nearby towns since last week, according to authorities.

Ash from Popocatépetl volcano, which is in a central part of the country, has delayed flights in Mexico City and led authorities to close schools in dozens of municipalities.

Some 25 million people live in a 60-mile (96km) radius of the volcano, which is about 72km south-east of Mexico City and located between the states of Morelos, Puebla and state of Mexico.

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On Sunday, the National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC) increased its volcanic threat level to "yellow phase three," which calls on some three million people who live in towns and villages adjacent to the volcano to stay alert and prepare for a possible evacuation.

The CNPC also warned of greater volcanic activity and the dispersion of ash into several nearby towns at high speed. It also recommended that residents nearby avoid outdoor activities.

"In the case of Mexico City, the risk is ash fall. We are prepared for that scenario and we know what to do. Let's stay alert," Mexico City's mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said in a tweet on Sunday.

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https://twitter.com/USEmbassyMEX/status/1660056099700240384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Mexico City's Benito Juárez International Airport (AICM) was temporarily closed on Saturday and some flights were delayed on Monday due to the presence of volcanic ash, according to airport authorities.

"Air travellers may continue to experience additional flight delays, cancellations, or temporary airport closures with little or no warning," the US embassy in Mexico said, with the airport also issuing a similar alert.

State authorities have also suspended in-person classes in schools across 40 municipalities in Puebla, five municipalities in the state of Mexico and seven in Tlaxcala and said the classes will be held remotely.

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The US embassy in Mexico issued a warning on Saturday saying the Popocatépetl volcano "has exhibited increased activity since May 15, registering hundreds of tremors and smoke and ash exhalations."

The embassy also recommended people to not travel within a 12km radius of the volcano, citing warnings from local authorities.

The volcano had been dormant for decades until it erupted in 1994. Since then, its rumblings have become a part of daily life for residents.

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The International Space Station has rolled out the welcome mat for two Saudi visitors, including the kingdom's first female astronaut.

SpaceX's chartered flight arrived at the orbiting lab less than 16 hours after blasting off from Florida. The four guests will spend just over a week there, before returning to Earth in their capsule.

The 430km-high docking puts the space station population at 11, representing not only Saudi Arabia and the US, but also the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

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"This shows how space brings everyone together," said Saudi Arabia's first female astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher.

"I'm going to live this experience to the max."

Saudi fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni dedicated the visit to everyone back home.

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"This mission is not just for me and Rayyanah. This mission is also for the people with ambition and dreams," he said.

The Saudi government is picking up the multimillion-dollar tab for both of them.

John Shoffner, a Knoxville, Tennessee, businessman who started a sports car racing team, is paying his own way.

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Retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is their chaperone. She now works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that organized the 10-day trip, its second to the space station.

The company cited ticket prices of US$55 million ($82.7 million) each for last year's private trip by three businessmen, but won't say how much the latest seats cost.

Only one other Saudi has flown before in space, a prince who rode on NASA's shuttle Discovery in 1985.

It was a case that seemed stranger than fiction – a betrayed wife that tracked down her cheating husband using a phone app, before running him and his mistress over when she discovered their affair.

Now, nearly two years after the love triangle culminated in a dramatic confrontation on a quiet Queensland street, 9News can show the video which reveals exactly how it unfolded.

CCTV of the moment Christie-Lee Kennedy ploughing into her husband David Larkin and his mistress Zowie Noring was shown to the jury during her trial but never released to the public.

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It shows Larkin and Noring canoodling next to their car on Bagot Street in the peaceful Brisbane suburb of Wavell Heights in March 2021, unaware of what's about to happen.

Within seconds, Kennedy can be seen barreling down the street in her white BMW SUV, smashing straight into the unsuspecting lovers.

During the trial, Kennedy maintained that she did not intend to strike the couple and had simply hit the brakes too late.

The jury accepted this argument and last month found Kennedy not guilty on two counts of "malicious acts with intent to disable".

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Neighbour and Wavell Heights resident of more than 30 years, "Scummy" told 9News he heard the collision from inside his home.

"I heard the thud from inside and we had the TV cranked up and you could hear 'bang'."

What happens next is obscured by the family car – but the court heard Kennedy got out on the other side of the car and attacked her husband's girlfriend Zowie, pulling her hair and punching her in the head.

Then, the vision shows that she gets back in and takes off, leaving Larkin and Noring still on the ground.

"I picked up my phone, called the ambos and my boy chased that girl down the road," Scummy said.

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As neighbours rush in to help, Zowie, with leg injuries, hobbles to her car and minutes later, drives away.

Then, scorned wife Kennedy, seen in the video wearing white pants, returns to the scene of the collision, yells at her husband, who is shown, on the ground, appearing to be writhing in pain, and waits beside him until paramedics and police arrive.

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Loved ones of a woman who killed her violent and controlling husband with poisoned biscuits have pleaded with a judge to show her mercy.

Rebecca Payne says she was abused for years by her husband Noel, who made her tattoo his name on her body 18 times and beat her in a graveyard.

But prosecutors say she could have just left.

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Payne faces life behind bars after a jury found her guilty of the murder of her husband Noel Payne, who was given a fatal dose of Temazepam, laced in the icing of biscuits she gave him with a cup of Milo.

She told jurors she hadn't meant to kill him, only put him to sleep.

Afterward she wrapped his body in a blanket and stored it in a chest freezer in the backyard of their home in the remote western Victorian community of Walpeup.

And there's still support in the small community.

"She's the victim, and not the perpetrator," local John said.

"She was a regular at the hospital with all of her bashings."

Payne's son Jamie hopes one day she will come home to her family.

"She lived 14 years in hell with him prior to what happened, but I just hope they go easy on her," he said.

It was in that community that Noel Payne created a "perverted and disturbing moral universe" in which he treated his wife as a mere object for his own pleasure, defence barrister Richard Edney told the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday.

His actions toward Payne were reprehensible and obscene, he said.

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In the dock, Payne dabbed away tears with a tissue as her lawyer outlined some of the horrifying abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband while trying to raise two boys.

"You've heard evidence of him repeatedly spitting on Rebecca Payne, watching her in the shower, heard the evidence of her being taken to a graveyard near the family home and bashed," Edney said.

"Rebecca had 18 tattoos of this man's name on all parts of her body."

At one point during their relationship Payne left her husband.

She returned, but in the meantime, Noel Payne had moved another young woman into their home and began a sexual relationship with her.

In a statement, that woman told the court Payne had made her get his name tattooed on her body five times.

The family violence she suffered could not be separated from her offending, Edney said, telling Justice Rita Incerti that this was a case where Payne should be showed mercy.

But prosecutor David Glynn said claims by Edney during the trial that Payne could have ended up dead if events were left to run their course were "pure speculation".

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He said Payne had a car, a phone, $9000 cash and knew she could leave her husband because she had left him before, and gone back.

"This was not a woman who was helpless and unable to act," he said.

"She acted, and what she did required a significant level of planning, thought and above all, I would suggest, determination."

The murder was planned at least days or weeks in advance and involved her cooking the biscuits, grinding the tablets, putting them in the icing and then moving the body.

"It must have been ghastly to do what she did to him … someone who isn't a psychopath – not that I'm suggesting she is one – would recoil," he said.

But he later conceded there was evidence to establish that Payne was subjected to violence and coercive control.

Justice Incerti will sentence Payne at a later date.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.