Cirque sale. Health care surcharges. Saudi interests. Women of the jihad. Timothy in art. Solid gold handshake. Violent South Africa

Concordia faculty and researchers are regularly asked to offer expert, informed opinions on many of today's most pressing problems. Read some of the latest news items about Concordians:

• CNN provides a transcript of an interview it aired Monday featuring Patrick Leroux, associate professor in the Department of English and the Département d'études françaises and founding director of the Montreal Working Group on Cirque/Circus, commenting the sale of Cirque du Soleil to American and Chinese interests. The Leroux portion of the transcript begins approximately two-thirds of the way down on the page. A re-post of the CNN video appears on Google+.  Watch the original video of the interview. Leroux is quoted also in an article on the Cirque transaction in Taipei Times. Finally, Leroux was interviewed by Mutsumi Takahashi, yesterday, on CTV-Montreal's midday news program.
• The Globe and Mail publishes an opinion piece co-authored by Kathleen O'Grady, research associate at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute,  and University of Ottawa professor Colleen M. Flood. O'Grady and Flood write about a case to be heard by the B.C. Supreme Court involving illegal surcharging by private clinics. The authors say the case, expected to be heard in the fall, could affect how all Canadians access health care.
• Yakub Halabi, a fellow at the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, writes an opinion piece in i24News about Saudi intervention in the civil war in neighbouring Yemen. 
• Marie Lamensch, Assistant to the Director at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), writes an opinion piece on OpenCanada.org. Lamensch discusses the role of women in the ranks of ISIS. She warns that while female jihadists don't play frontline combat roles in the terror organization, the threat they pose should not be minimized.
• A brief in PrimoNumero (in Italian) listing coming events in Termoli, Italy, mentions the participation of Filippo Salvatore, associate professor in the Department of Classics, Modern Languages, and Linguistics (CMLL), in an event to launch  "Timothy in Art", this Saturday. The exhibition will mark the 70th anniversary of the rediscovery of the remains of Saint Timothy in the Cathedral of Termoli. Salvatore will participate via Skype.
• Accountancy professor Michel Magnan is quoted in an article in The Globe and Mail about the near-doubling of Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu's pension to $791,300 a year, if he remains at the airline for three more years. The article is reprised by 24news.ca.
• Daniel Douek, lecturer in the Department of Political Science and a research fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) is quoted in an article in LaPresse+ about the current wave of violence in South Africa.

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